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^OW TO HAVE 
BIRD NEIGHBORS 



S • LOUISE PATTESON 




D • C • HEATH &t COMPANY 




STRINGS AND COTTON AND CHICKEN FEATHERS FOR THE 

birds' nestings {See page 56) 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD 
NEIGHBORS 



^*' BY 

s/louise patteson 

AUTHOR OF "pussy MEOW, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CAT ' 
AND "kITTY-KAT KIMMIE, A CAT's TALE" 



PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR 

COVER BY HELEN BABBITT AND 
ETHEL BLOSSOM 



D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



,5 

"T3 



COPYRIGHT, 191 7, BY 
S. LOUISE PATTESON 

IK7 



# ^. ^^ 



DEC -6 1917 



©CU477861 

1'' ■ 



DEDICATED TO 

BOYS AND GIRLS 



FOREWORD 

This narrative of neighborship with birds is 
suggestive rather than exhaustive. It aims not so 
much to inform the reader, as to instill in him the 
desire to learn from the outdoors itself, to know 
at first hand about the charms and the benefac- 
tions of birdlife. The observing reader will supply 
what has been left unsaid, and so experience the 
zest of initiative, the joy of discovery, in our 
mysterious and manifold bird-world. 



S. L. p. 



Waldheim, 

East Cle'v^land, Ohio, 

October, 1917. 




SUET AND DOUGHNUTS FOR DOWNY, CORN FOR THE 
CARDINAL, CEREAL FOR THE SONG SPARROW 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

List of Illustrations vii 

I. My First Bird Neighbors 1 

n. New Adventures in Birdland 11 

m. Real Troubles in Birdland 21 

IV. The Bluebirds' Bungalow ...... 28 

V. The Wrens' Apartment House .... 36 

VI. The Boy 44 

VII. The Chimney Swifts 62 

Vni. Birds Not of a Feather ...... 68 

IX. The Martins' Aircastle 78 

X. More about the Boy 92 

XI. The Cardinals 102 

XII. My Bird Family 110 

Glossary 123 

Index 127 




goldfinch feeding babies 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Strings and cotton and chicken 
feathers for the birds' 

nestings Frontis 

Suet and doughnuts for downy, page 
corn for the cardinal, 
cereal for the song sparrow v 
Goldfinch feeding babies ... vi 
*' Oh, where is Mother.'^ " . . . viii 
The basin on the porch railing 1 
They were making that can 

into a bird home .... 4 

The baby robins 9 

One winter day a pigeon came 

in at an open window . . 10 
Vacant lots attract birds . . 11 
The winter birds like peanuts 

and suet 13 

When I did not have peanuts 
I gave the nuthatch dough- 
nuts 14 

The dear happy chickadee . . 17 
The selfish nuthatch .... 20 
Cats belong on their own 

premises 21 

The basin was Bunny's looking 

glass 22 

The genial gray squirrel ... 27 

The return of the bluebird . . 28 

Sometimes she was just gliding 

through the entrance as he 

alighted on the housetop 

with a choice morsel for 

her 31 

Bluebird babies to feed and 

care for 33 



The bluebirds moved into the page 
pretty double house ... 34 

Rented for the summer ... 36 

The small wren house in the 

pear tree 39 

A baby w ren on the window sill 43 

Bluebirds are great helpers in a 

garden 44 

Baby flicker peeps at the out- 
side world 49 

Mrs. Wood Thrush on her nest 51 

A killdeer's nest in a potato 

field 53 

The bluebirds in their primi- 
tive home 55 

Every little while a goldfinch 
came to the "store" tree 
and got some string ... 57 

The chimney swifts' temporary 

home 60 

The flicker is also called golden- 
winged woodpecker ... 61 

Chimney swifts' nest .... 62 

One of these Swift babies was 
put to rest in the nest, 
but he did not stay there 
long 63 

A robin's nest 68 

Near the nest tree was a big 
stone which the redheaded 
woodpecker used as a 
perch 74 

Each little goldfinch called as 

loud as he could .... 76 

A young goldfinch alighted on 

the clothes line 77 



vm 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



This martin scout brought a page 

lady with him 78 

The martins' aircastle .... 81 
The home-coming of the mar- 
tins 87 

A great gathering in mid-air . 91 
A bath for birds and a lunch 

beside it 92 

The crested flycatcher and a 

Berlepsch house .... 95 

Bob White's shelter .... 98 
The new food house was visited 

by bluejays 100 

A feedery much liked by downy 101 
A tree trimmed with peanuts 

for the birds 102 



The cardinal's favorite feed- page 
ery 105 

Always Mr. Cardinal came 
first and ate a while; then 
she would follow .... 109 

Song sparrow 110 

Mother Oriole in the bath . . 113 

So made that they can be 
easily opened after use and 
cleaned 116 

Food house, made out of waste 

materials 118 

Maybe they will fly to us, 

instead of away from us . 121 

The birdies' policeman . . . 122 




'*OH, WHERE IS MOTHER?" 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 




HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 

The birds that live in my yard are the lovehest 
of all ray neighbors. During the springtime and 
summer they awaken me every morning with their 
sweet songs. Then all the day long their pretty 
ways make me wish I had nothing to do but to 
watch them. 

Now I can imagine someone saying, *'If I had 
a yard, I, too, would try to have bird neighbors." 
Listen! Before I had a yard I had bird neighbors 
on my porch. 

1 



2 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

How did I get them? 

In summer, a basin of water on the porch railing, 
and in winter, the basin filled with table scraps — this 
is what did it. On the porch of that apartment 
house I learned how to neighbor with birds. 

A kind lady in the next house tied suet and strings 
of peanuts to one of her trees. During winter and 
spring the woodpeckers enjoyed the treat, while 
we enjoyed the woodpeckers! Pigeons and blue jays 
came too, and, yes, English sparrows, those birds 
that are nowhere welcome. But they didn't have it 
all their own way there, as they do where nothing is 
done to attract other birds. 

One winter day a beautiful blue and white pigeon 
with rose-colored neck came in at an open window. 
The streets were covered with snow. It was hard 
for birds to find anything to eat. This pigeon ate 
some rolled oats that I scattered before it, drank 
some water, and walked into a corner. After a nap 
it ate some more; then took another nap. When 
it awoke again I set it in a waste-paper basket by the 
open window, so it could go away when it pleased. 
It took several more helpings of oats. Toward eve- 
ning it fiew away. 

Among the pigeons that used to come often to my 
porch was my little guest of a day. As the pigeons 
ate they always cooed. Perhaps they were remark- 
ing how good it tasted. 

In early spring the robins came. They liked little 



MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 3 

scraps of meat. Chopped raw beef was to them the 
greatest treat. At the basin they not only drank, 
but spread their wings over it and splashed the water 
all around, trying to bathe in that shallow dish. It 
was only a big flower-pot saucer. While the weather 
was still cold, they began to sing mornings before 
daylight. It was like listening to Christmas carols 
to hear them. 

On mild and thawing days they could be seen hop- 
ping over my neighbor's lawn. Most cunningly they 
would turn their heads to one side, then to the other. 
It is said that they do this so they can hear the worms 
and insects move about in the ground. I believe it; 
for often I have seen a robin, after listening intently 
at some spot, stop to scratch and dig, then pull out 
a worm. 

The robins often pulled and jerked at the morning- 
glory vines on our porch. Whenever they got one 
loose they would gather it up in loops with the bill 
and carry it away. They also tore strings off our mop 
and flew away w^ith them. 

On a pillar of our porch there hung a can in which 
we sometimes put flowers. One rainy April day a 
little wren alighted on the edge of that can and 
looked in. The can was empty at the time, so the 
bird went inside, but came out again quickly and 
flew away. 

Pretty soon two wrens came, and both went inside. 
Then for several days they made frequent visits to 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



that can, and there was almost constant triUing of 
the merriest bubbhng songs. Sometimes there was 
just a chatter back and forth, as if they were talk- 
ing or arguing. These wrens were so much together 
that I concluded they were mates. 

They fetched little twigs of all kinds and dropped 
them into that can. They also fetched bits of cloth 
and chicken feathers, as if they actually intended to 
make a feather bed. Mr. Wren could carry things 
in his bill and sing at the same time. Once in a while, 
when he brought something, Mrs. Wren chattered 

louder than usual. 
It sounded as 
though she wasn't 
pleased with what 
he had brought. 
Sometimes she 
wouldn't even let 
him in, and, after 
carrying his burden 
around for a while, 
he would drop it. 
But he sang on just 
as happily, and en- 
tertained her while 
she did most of the 
work. This went 

THEY WERE MAKING THAT CAN ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ d^^^- 

INTO A BIRD HOME At last they fetched 




MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 5 

grasses, too. It was a joy to see how happy they were 
at their work. They were making that can into a 
bird home. 

When the Httle home was finished, Mrs. Wren 
loved it so well that for about two weeks she stayed 
in it nearly all the time. Mr. Wren brought her many 
kinds of bugs and worms to eat, and sang to her all 
the day long. 

Soon there were some baby wrens in that little 
home. Again Father and Mother Wren worked hard 
from daylight until dark, fetching worms and bugs 
for their babies to eat. Whenever one came home 
with a bill full, he glided right in among those thorny 
twigs. How they could do it without getting pricked 
was a wonder! 

One day all this was changed. Instead of going 
into their little home with provisions, both Father and 
Mother Wren stayed out on the edge, and held a 
worm or a bug where the little ones could see it. 
After a while, one of the baby birds came up a little 
way to receive a helping of the food. But the big 
outdoors must have frightened him; for he ducked 
right down again. The next one that came out had 
more courage, or else he was more hungry. He re- 
ceived a helping; then gazed about him a little. Evi- 
dently the world looked pleasant to him. He shook 
his feathers, flapped his wings, and didn't go back 
into the little home at all. This was just what Father 
and Mother wanted him to do, and each gave him a 



6 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

whole worm, although the birdies inside were calling 
for some too. 

The day was fine. It was still early. The babies 
would have all day in which to get used to the out- 
doors if they would come out now. To-morrow it 
might rain, and the next day, and the next. The 
babies were quite old enough to live outside of that 
stuffy can. They must come out to-day, — so Father 
and Mother Wren had decided. 

After the little venturer had received several help- 
ings, another birdling came scrambling up. He got 
all of the next helping. Mother Wren was among 
the porch vines, chirping. Every little while she 
flew to the little ones, fluttered her wings before 
them, and then flew back to the vines. In this way 
she was coaxing them to follow her. 

Before Number Three came out, the mother had 
Numbers One and Two safely among the vines. 
Number Four came close behind Number Three. 
It wasn't very pleasant to stay down in the can all 
alone. The mother kept up her coaxing until she 
managed to get them all in nice, shady places. 

It was now about nine o'clock. The rest of the 
day was spent quietly among the vines. After they 
had rested a little from the excitement of their first 
flight. Mother tried to keep them moving from vine 
to vine. One was more clever than the others. He 
learned everything quickly. 

The Wren family lived in the vines all the next 



MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 7 

day. On the third day Mother Wren began to coax 
them farther away. Back and forth she flew be- 
tween the porch and my neighbor's tree, and around 
in circles, to show the babies how to do it. Father 
Wren coaxed them on with a white worm in his bill. 
He was not singing much now, because these growing 
birds needed more and more food. Also, father- 
wisdom bade him keep quiet lest his babies be dis- 
covered and come to harm. 

The cleverest of the four was also the biggest; so 
it was easy to tell him from the rest. Again, he was 
always the first to venture. But as he neared the 
tree, when he had almost reached his goal, he began 
to drop; and he fell to the ground. Fearing some 
harm might come to him, I went down quickly with 
the long-handled dust mop. It was fuzzy, and soft 
for him to rest on. With it I hoisted him to a low 
branch. Mother and Father Wren scolded, but 
went to the young bird as soon as my back was 
turned. Birds do not like to have people meddle 
with their affairs; but sometimes when they are in 
trouble we can help them. 

Maybe this little mishap showed Mother Wren that 
her babies were not yet strong enough to fly so far. 
Anyway, she waited until the next day before she 
urged the others to go. Even then she was not quite 
decided. At dinner time the three were still on the 
porch. They had reached the highest rung of the 
trellis. In the afternoon, when I returned from 



8 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

school, they were gone. Father Wren was again 
singing his cheery songs. He had kept pretty quiet 
while the little ones were learning to fly. Why? Be- 
cause he did not want anyone to find out where they 
were. 

My robins, meanwhile, had made themselves a 
nest on a high window sill at the far end of the porch; 
but not until the wrens began nesting did I discover 
it. Already there were three blue eggs in it. The 
robins seemed so distressed at being found out that 
we kept away from that end of the porch until they 
got well used to us. The wrens didn't fear us at all. 
They came to their nest no matter how many people 
were on the porch. 

I had now learned what the wrens and the robins 
like for their nestings; so I fastened strings, shreds 
of cloth, some cotton, and small chicken feathers to 
the low branches of my neighbor's trees, and also on 
my porch. I had read somewhere that some birds will 
pull feathers out of their own bodies, if they can find 
none elsewhere, with which to line their nests. After 
the wrens had cleaned out the can, they helped 
themselves to cotton and feathers, and made ready for 
their second nesting. 

Father and Mother Robin were such devoted 
parents, it seemed as if they couldn't do enough. 
Their babies always craned their necks and opened 
their bills wide as soon as they heard anyone near. 
As they grew older they also chattered and fiapped 



MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 9 




THE BABY ROBINS 

their wings. Sometimes they fluttered over the sides 
of the nest so far that I feared they would fall off 
the high window sill. 

One morning the robins' nest was empty, and the 
young were over on my neighbor's lawn. For con- 
venience I will call this neighbor Mrs. Daily. She 
lived on our right. The neighbor to our left was 
Mrs. Cotton. 

A birds' bath at Mrs. Daily's and the tree with 
nesting materials on it showed the birds that they 
were welcome there. So the parents coaxed their 
young in that direction. 

Mrs. Cotton also tried to attract birds. But her 
basin sometimes went dry for days. Also, she had a 
big, beautiful cat that was usually somewhere in the 



10 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

yard. It was not so inviting there, according to 
birds' ways of thinking, nor so safe for their young, 
as over at Mrs. Daily's, where the cat was kept in. 

I kept our kitty locked up night and day, and 
asked my neighbors to keep their cats in, too, until 
these young robins could fly up into trees. At first 
they could only fly sideways. It is more than just a 
kind act to save young robins from harm: it is sav- 
ing birds who will be useful and pleasing all their lives, 
and who will spread happiness wherever they go. 

When I saw how my birds left me as soon as their 
young could fly, I began to wish that I, too, had a 
yard and trees, like my neighbors. I longed to have 
more birds, and birds of different kinds. 



ONE WINTER DAY A PIGEON CAME IN AT AN OPEN 
WINDOW 




VACANT LOTS 
ATTRACT BIRDS 



II 

NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 

I GOT my wish: Our present home is a whole 
house, with a yard. We have big trees and httle 
ones, and on one side there is a grape arbor. All 
around us are vacant lots, where thornapple bushes, 
dogwood trees, and tall sunflowers grow. These 
attract birds. Behind the vacant lots there is a 
ravine with wild cherry trees, elder bushes, wild 
grape tangles, and other attractions for birds. 

The wrens and the robins had gone to their winter 
homes when we moved, and the woodpeckers had 
come. I had bought a bird guide with colored 
pictures, and a pair of field glasses which brought 
those black and white birds very near to me. Some 
had red on the back of the head. They were the 

11 



12 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

downy woodpeckers. A bird very much like the 
downy, but larger, was the hairy woodpecker. And 
there were birds just like the downy and hairy but 
without the red patch on the head. They were the 
mates of the downy and the hairy. 

Whenever I heard a brisk ''chsip," I could see 
downy approach in graceful, curving flight toward 
some tree. Usually he perched near the bottom and 
climbed up, pecking and scratching as he went. 
Sometimes he alighted higher up and came down 
cat-fashion, but always busily pecking at the bark. 
The hairy did the same. This must be why these 
birds are called woodpeckers. 

Knowing how well the winter birds like peanuts 
and suet, I fastened strings of peanuts across a bird 
table that I had made, and in the tray below I 
kept suet. I also scattered chickfeed on the ground 
beside a tree, and added to it buckwheat and sun- 
flower seeds. But I soon learned better than to put 
anything for birds near a tree behind which a cat 
could hide! 

It was great fun to watch the different birds select 
their favorite food. The woodpeckers liked the suet 
so well that, while it was on hand, they hardly ever 
touched the peanuts. Downy also liked the chick- 
feed; but he did not like to step down to the ground. 
In trying to get it, he would back down the tree until 
his tail touched the ground. Then, without leaving 
the tree and while propped on his tail, he reached 



NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 



13 




THE WINTER BIRDS LIKE PEANUTS AND SUET 



over to the right or left and picked up kernels. In 

this way he could eat without stepping on the ground. 

And downy had good eating manners. He never 



14 



HOW TO HAVE BHID NEIGHBORS 



hurried, never fidgeted. Sometimes he stayed twenty 
minutes at a meal and ate slowly and quietly, like 
a well-bred person. 

Another bird that came to my place in winter had 
a light blue back and a white front. His wings and 




WHEN I DID NOT HAVE PEANUTS I GAVE THE 
NUTHATCH DOUGHNUTS 



tail were dark blue, and so was the top of his head. 
I always knew he was near when I heard a sound 
like "gack" or ''yack." He liked the peanuts 
better than anything else. With his sharp bill he 
would punch a nut, then hold down the shell while 



NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 15 

he pulled out the kernel. Maybe this is why he is 
called the nuthatch. Sometimes, when I did not 
have peanuts, I gave him doughnuts. He liked them 
just as well. He would nibble at a doughnut until 
it dropped from the nail, then go to the ground and 
forage there. He liked cheese also. 

I soon found that somebody else, too, liked suet 
and peanuts. This was the red squirrel, and when 
he was on the table the birds would not come near. 
However, it was birds I wanted and not squirrels, — 
especially not the red squirrel, who is said to bother 
birds in many ways. To keep him away I nailed 
tin sheeting around the post of the bird table. 

I am sorry to say that the nuthatch was not at 
all polite to other birds. He always wanted all the 
food himself, no matter how much there was on hand. 
He would flit from one feeding place to another and 
chase the other birds away. I stopped putting pea- 
nuts on the table, so that he would have no excuse 
to go there and the birds who liked the suet might 
eat in peace. I put all the peanuts on the tree 
farthest back in the vacant lot and made the selfish 
nuthatch eat there by himself. 

Another thing that was not nice about the nut- 
hatch was his way of eating. He was always in a 
hurry. He would take the kernel out of a nut, 
walk up the tree with it, and fly away. Then he 
would come back quickly and do the same thing 
again, as if afraid another bird might get something. 



16 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

Sometimes he kept this up for an hour or more. 
Even after all the peanuts were moved to his tree, 
he would bluster around at the other feeding places 
and try to drive those peaceable birds away. 

The dearest of all my winter birds were some that 
came singing in all sorts of weather. I called them 
my little minstrels. 

"Chicaday, chicaday, chicaday-day-day-day/' was 
their song. Somebody has named them chickadees, 
and the name just fits. If you should see a little 
gray bird with a black cap and bib, who comes sing- 
ing that song, you may know that you have seen a 
chickadee. 

The chickadees were not at all particular what 
they ate. They sang just as cheerily when they had 
only breadcrumbs as they did when they found suet 
and peanuts and sunflower seeds. They never 
wasted their food. If any fell to the ground they 
picked it up. They were the politest of birds and, 
like the downy and the hairy, they worked at the 
trees most of the time. 

These winter birds are some of nature's best 
house-cleaners. They work all through the cold and. 
stormy season when the other birds are away in their 
sunny winter homes. Should we not remember to 
give them a treat once in a while, and so brighten 
the cold days with good cheer .^^ 

From the very first, I heard many bird voices 
coming from the ravine. So one morning I took 



NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 



17 



a walk out that way. Scattered all along were tall 
sunflowers, now gone to seed. Foraging on some 
were the noisy bluejays, on others the dear happy 
chickadees. The trees were bare, so that I could 
see as well as hear the birds. Woodpeckers were 
tapping, pecking, delving. All along I heard this 
pleasing, friendly music, as if the birds were following 
me. So pleasant was my walk that I did not realize 
how far I was going until I was at the end of the 
city, where the country begins. 






THE DEAR HAPPY CHICKADEE 

A good way off were some widely scattered houses. 
On a tall pole near the first house was a very large 
bird house. As I drew nearer, three small bird 
houses came in sight. 

I made up my mind to get acquainted with the 



18 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

people in that home. A pleasant lady opened the 
door and invited me in. 

"Who put up those bird houses.^" I asked, the 
first thing. 

"That's my boy," said the lady. "He just loves 
to tinker with his tools." She pointed with pride 
to a clock shelf which she said he had made for her 
birthday. 

"And he made that big bird house, too?" I asked. 

"He made every one," answered the lady, "and 
he is making more. He is learning it in the manual 
training school." 

I told her I wanted to make some bird houses, 
but didn't know just how to go about it. 

Then she led me into a tiny room off the kitchen. 
There by the window stood an old dry goods box 
that had been fitted up as a work bench, with a vise 
and a rack for small tools. Larger tools were hang- 
ing on the wall. On some shelves were wooden 
boxes and boards. On the work bench lay a bird 
house. I picked it up and looked at it. 

"He says that's to be for wrens," explained the 
lady. From a chest she produced another bird 
house which she said was for bluebirds. 

"He makes them out of these boxes that he gets 
from our grocer," she added, "and I save the starch 
boxes for him." 

The lady had much to do, so I made ready to go. 
But she went on talking: 



NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 19 

"At first, I couldn't bear to give up this little 
storeroom. But since I have seen how happy it 
makes Laddie to have this little ^shop,' as he calls 
it, I am glad I gave in to him. Would you believe 
it: from the time he begins to work with these tools 
until he lays them down again he whistles and sings 
like a bird himself! I think anything that makes a 
boy so contented must be good for him." 

The lady then went about her work, telling me not 
to hurry. So I stayed to take some measurements 
of the bird houses. Both were made so that they 
could be opened in front. 

"He makes them that way so they can be easily 
cleaned," explained the lady. 

On the way home I stopped at our grocer's and 
got some small wooden boxes. Two were yeast 
foam boxes, and one was a cocoa box. I, too, had 
learned in manual training school how to use simple 
tools, so I bought also a saw, plane, shaving knife, 
brace and set of bits, and a small vise. Then out 
of an old sewing machine stand I made a work 
bench, and a light corner of the basement became 
my "shop." I made those yeast foam boxes into 
wren houses, and out of the cocoa box I made a blue- 
bird house. The boy's mother had told me that 
his manual training teacher was a lady, and that 
she was "just as good as a man," so I felt quite 
proud of my new fancy work. 

The house for bluebirds and one for wrens were put 



20 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



up in trees. The other wren house was mounted 
on a post above the grape arbor. But it did not 
stay there long, for I soon found that a grape arbor 
is no place for a bird house. Can you guess why 
not.? 

It was while waiting for the wrens and the blue- 
birds to come that I had such delightful times with 
the woodpeckers, the nuthatches and the chickadees. 





-w>...-«^. 




T^ 


fB^^tm^--'9'-'^^ 










!^ 


BbA." 


J 



THE SELFISH NUTHATCH 




CATS BELONG ON THEIR OWN PREMISES 
III 

REAL TROUBLES IN BIRDLAND 

I SAID that birds were lovely neighbors. So are 
some other animals. At my new home I soon be- 
came acquainted with a wild rabbit. Two dogs 
roamed around in the vacant lots and in the ravine 
a great deal. Often when I heard them barking, 
the next thing I saw would be Bunny, running as 
fast as he could toward our place, with the dogs 

21 



%% 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



after him. Bunny could glide through under the 
garden fence, and that was lucky for him. The 
dogs were too big and couldn't. 

I was glad when Bunny came to our place for safety. 
He liked slices of apple so well that he would come 
nearer and nearer to get them, until finally he ate 
out of my hand. 

One hot day while Bunny was in our yard, he saw 
the birds' basin, and went there to drink. He had 




THE BASIN WAS BUNNY S LOOKING-GLASS 



REAL TROUBLES IN BIRDLAND S3 

been accustomed to drink at the brook in the ra- 
vine, where the water always runs, if there is any. 
But the brook was dried up at this time of year. 
The clear, still water in the basin was a new thing 
to Bunny. He took a long look at it. Seeing him- 
self pictured in the water was another new thing to 
him, and he looked again and again. Evidently he 
thought himself quite handsome, for even after it 
rained and the brook filled up again, he still kept 
coming. The basin was his looking-glass. 

I am sorry for what I have to tell about some other 
animals. One day our neighbor's cat lay crouching 
near the tree under which the chickfeed was scattered. 
A downy woodpecker was just coming down the tree. 
Kitty's eyes glared. Her teeth chattered. But evi- 
dently the downy did not see her. I scolded Kitty 
and drove her away. This disturbed the downy, and 
he flew away too. But that was better than to let 
him come down where Kitty could jump on him. 
She could easily have done so while he was reaching 
over to the ground for a kernel. 

After this experience I covered up all the chickfeed 
beside the tree, and scattered some in more ex- 
posed places, away from any trees and from bushes. 
•I also laid suet on low branches of trees and tied it 
on firmly, and poked some into small holes of old 
trees, and under the bark. 

Soon afterward I saw the same cat again. This 
time she was on a branch, eating suet. That set 



24 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

me to thinking: "If the cat can get to the suet in 
the tree, she will also be able to get to the bird 
houses. Some day she might find some baby birds 
in there, not yet able to fly." 

I did not take away the suet which the birds 
liked so well. I got some tin sheeting and tacked 
it around the tree. The cat could not climb over 
the smooth sheeting. 

Imagine my surprise when I saw her up there at 
the suet again! ''How did she get there.^" I 
wondered to myself. Day after day I watched Kitty 
before I found her out. 

One morning, who should go climbing up that 
tree but a red squirrel.^ When he reached the tin, 
he looked around and made a loud chatter. Seeing 
no one, he took one big jump over the sheeting and 
went to the suet. After tasting it, he wiped his 
mouth on the bark as if he did not like it. Then he 
went over to the bluebird house. The entrance to 
this little house had been nicked by somebody with 
sharp little teeth. Now I found out who that 
somebody was. This squirrel was even now nib- 
bling at the entrance, trying to make it still bigger. 
At the wren house somebody had broken off the little 
porch, which was probably the squirrel's doing also. • 

I wondered what I should do to keep this squirrel 
from spoiling my bird houses. Some more tin sheet- 
ing, I thought, would fix it so he could not jump 
over. I put another sheet just above the first one. 



REAL TROUBLES IN BIRDLAND 25 

That made the tin protection thirty-six inches deep. 
When the squirrel came the next time, he cHmbed 
as far as he could, then looked up at the tin. That 
was too high a jump. He turned, jumped to the 
ground, and scampered away. 

The pilfering red squirrel is not to be confounded 
with the genial gray squirrel of our parks, who loves 
to take peanuts out of our hands. 

I still wondered how Kitty had made her way to 
the suet, with the tin around that tree. Surely she 
could not jump over the tin! As a jumper the 
squirrel can beat Kitty any time. One day I heard 
a scratching noise. Kitty was sharpening her claws 
on the bark of the next tree. Every little while she 
climbed a few steps up that tree; then sharpened her 
claws again. There was nothing in that tree that 
she could harm, so I let her go on. She walked along 
on one of the branches, and jumped across to a 
branch on the other tree, the one that held the 
bluebird house, and smelled around there. It was 
early spring. There were no young birds in the 
house yet; so I let her go on, just to see what she 
would do. Some English sparrows had started to 
nest in the little house. Kitty pulled out grasses 
and feathers, and spoiled the nest. 

Now just think how wise she was to plan that all 
out so nicely! And all she gets for it is scolding! 
Why should we blame Kitty for liking birds? We 
like our chicken dinners. We praise Kitty when she 



26 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

catches a mouse or a rat. Some people even entice 
her to catch EngHsh sparrows. How can she know 
it is good to clean out a mouse nest and naughty to 
clean out a bird nest.^ 

Two things can be done to lessen the loss of birds 
by cats. First, to safeguard in every possible way 
every bird house, feeding place, and bath. Second, 
to compel the owners of cats to keep them on their 
own premises, and to lock them up nights. It is at 
night, when there is no one to interfere, that cats do 
the most damage to birds. 

I knew that if Kitty could jump from that tree to 
the next one, the squirrel could do it, too; so I put 
double tin sheeting on that tree also. 

But such a clever cat and such a nimble squirrel 
would also know how to climb the grape arbor, I 
thought; so I took the wren house off the arbor. 
This house also had been nibbled and the entrance 
made much larger. I concluded that the worst of 
all places for a bird house is a grape arbor, a pergola, 
or a garden arch. 

A friend had sent me a beautiful wren house. It 
was shaped like a small barrel, and had four rooms. 
I called it the apartment house. Fortunately, it was 
made of such hard wood that no squirrel could bite 
through. I had this house put on a tin-sheathed 
post on the north side of the house where it would be 
in shade. 

For the bluebirds I put up two new houses. The 



REAL TROUBLES IN BIRDLAND 27 

one that had been up all winter was so smelly of 
squirrels and English sparrows that I knew the dainty 
bluebirds would not like it. The time was near 
for the birds to return from their winter homes. I 
wanted everything clean and safe for them. 




THE GENIAL GRAY SQUIRREL 




THE RETURN OF THE BLUEBIRD 



IV 

THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 

I LOVE the springtime because it brings my birds 
back from their winter homes. 

One cold March day I saw something blue flash 
across the sky. 

''Can that be the bluebird I have been waiting 
for?" I thought. 

28 



THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 29 

It flew into a tree; then alighted on a clothesline 
post. I could plainly see the blue on its back and 
the red on its front. Yes, it was the bluebird. His 
song was as beautiful as his plumage, but in a minor 
tone : 

"De- De-' 

ary! ary!" 

Next he flew to the top of the wren house, tripped 
along the roof, leaned over and looked at the little 
porches. Then he went down on one of them and 
looked into the room. That was as far as he could 
go. The entrances to these apartments had been 
made for the tiny wrens and not for bluebirds. 
When he saw the bluebird house in the tree, he flew 
to a branch just in front of it and looked at it a 
while. Then he flew back to the wren house and tried 
that again; he liked it so well, he couldn't bear to 
give it up. 

After a week or so another bird came, of much 
paler hue, but with the reddish breast. The song of 
my bluebird now became long and pleading: ''Deary! 
dear, dear, deary!" But it still remained subdued 
and minor. Together he and his newly arrived com- 
panion visited the bird houses, so I concluded that 
they were mates. They could hardly make up their 
minds which house to take, so pleased were they with 
all of them. Mrs. Bluebird tried the wren house, 
too. But when she saw she could not get inside she 
did not go there any more. 



30 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

My prettiest bluebird house was on our hammock 
post, well shaded by our biggest tree. I had read 
somewhere that bluebirds like to have one house for 
spring and another for summer. So this house was 
made with two rooms, one above the other. I 
thought the bluebirds would surely like this double 
house better than the single one, for they went inside 
it many times, and always stayed there long. 

The other house, which was mounted on a young 
maple, was not nearly so pretty. It was made out 
of cigar boxes and I had forgotten to take off the 
labels. After the bluebirds had visited it I did not 
dare touch it because, if their houses are interfered 
with, birds are liable to go away. Both the maple 
and the hammock post were well protected with tin 
sheeting. 

One day Mrs. Bluebird fetched some grasses in 
her bill. To my great joy she alighted on the perch 
in front of the double house. Twice she poised to 
fly, but did not. At last she flew — and where do 
you think she went? Why, to that ugly little house 
with the labels on it! 

While she was in the house, Mr. Bluebird alighted 
on the porch, looked in, and sang a little song. Mrs. 
Bluebird flew out past him and almost brushed him 
off. Then he went inside, and just as Mrs. Bluebird 
returned with some more grasses he came out with 
a chip in his bill. Some chips had fallen inside when 
I made the entrance, and he did not like that. The 



THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 



31 




SOMETIMES SHE WAS JUST GLIDING THROUGH THE 
ENTRANCE AS HE ALIGHTED ON THE HOUSETOP 
WITH A CHOICE MORSEL FOR HER 



little house must be clean, since Mrs. Bluebird was 
going to make her nest in it. Sometimes he brought 
a grass or two; she brought whole wads of grasses. 
But he made up in attentions to her. Wherever she 
might be working, he perched near by, on a fence 



82 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

post or a low branch, and kept his eyes on her. As 
she went from place to place to find the right kind of 
grasses, or to the little house to throw them in, he 
always followed her. Sometimes she was just gliding 
through the entrance with a load as he alighted on 
the house top with a choice morsel for her to eat. 

One day our neighbor's cat was hiding behind an 
evergreen near where Mrs. Bluebird was hunting 
grasses. Mr. Bluebird's bright eyes saw her just in 
time. 

"Dear-dear-dear!" he cried, quickly and jerkily. 

Mrs. Bluebird knew that that meant, ''Danger! 
Fly quick!!" Up she flew, and away. 

The cat jumped high and almost caught her. 

After that I chased the cat away every time I saw 
her. There certainly should be a law to make people 
keep their cats at home. 

When Mrs. Bluebird had her house all furnished 
she stayed at home about two weeks and took a good 
rest. Mr. Bluebird continued to bring her meals 
and to entertain her. When he was not hunting 
bugs and worms, or chasing English sparrows, he 
was sure to be somewhere near home, singing his 
sweetest songs. 

When Mrs. Bluebird was able to be out again she 
and Mr. Bluebird were busier than ever. Both were 
carrying food to the little house. I knew then that 
they had babies in there, so I called him Father, and 
her Mother. 



THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 



33 




BLUEBIRD BABIES TO FEED AND CARE FOR 



The bluebirds caught some of their food in the air, 
but a good deal of it they picked up in my garden. 
I had some low stakes there expressly for them. 
They perched on these and on the bean-poles, and 
from there pounced on many a luckless worm or bug 
that their sharp eyes espied. I am sure the bluebirds 
are great helpers in a garden. 

After two busy weeks of baby-tending, Father and 
Mother Bluebird did just what the little wrens had 
done. They made the babies come outside for their 
food, or go hungry. 

I think the first little bird to leave a nest must be 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



very courageous. The 
others usually follow 
close after him. It was 
so with these blue- 
birds. And as they 
came out, one after 
another, Mother 
coaxed them over to 
the thornapple bushes. 
She did it by calling, 
''Dear dear," and fly- 
ing back and forth 
between the little house 
and the bushes. 

Some of the baby 
bluebirds were quite 
obedient and flew after 
the mother. Two liked 
it so well on a branch 
in front of their house 
that they stayed there 
a while; then flew to 
other branches in the 
same tree. Father 
looked after these, and 
Mother stayed with 
the other three. What 
a chatter they always 
made when food was brought to them! It seemed 




THE BLUEBIRDS MOVED INTO 
THE PRETTY DOUBLE HOUSE 



THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 35 

as if each one said: "Come to me! Come to 



me 



While Father and Mother Bluebird had those babies 
to feed and to care for, they started another house- 
keeping. This time they moved into the pretty 
double house and took the lower story. In the second 
coming-out party there were four more little bluebirds. 

All through this second housekeeping the English 
sparrows tried repeatedly to get into the upper story, 
and Father Bluebird had to spend much time chasing 
them away. In the one-story house he had that much 
more time to get food, or to sing. 

I did not clean the bungalow house after their first 
nesting, because I did not want the bluebirds to nest 
in it again. After the double house was vacated, I 
cleaned both houses, and found that the bluebirds 
had used only grasses and a few feathers for their 
nesting. In each case they had covered the entire 
floor with grasses, but the cup-like nest was back 
against the rear wall, as far from the entrance as it 
could possibly be. 

What could this mean but that the bluebird likes 
a house with depth so she can bed her young as far 
back from meddling paws as possible.^ This much I 
learned from examining the deserted bluebird nests. 




RENTED FOR THE SUMMER 

V ^^ 
THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 

A FOUR-ROOM house which had been sent to me 
was very much Hked by a pair of wrens. Again their 
lively, rippling notes filled the air, as these wrens 
went from room to room of this "apartment house," 
as I called it. It was three days before they made 
up their minds which room they liked best. 

Then they brought little twigs and bits of rag, and 
leaves, and other things, and. poked them into one 

36 



THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 37 

of the rooms. It was as good as saying, ''We will 
take this apartment for the summer." 

Some Enghsh sparrows wanted that same room. 
We always shooed them away, of course, if we could 
without frightening the other birds. The wrens 
jabbered and hissed at the sparrows, and stayed, 
pecking them and being pecked by them. There 
were four sparrows and only the two wrens; so the 
poor little wrens finally gave up and went away. 

But, try as they would, the sparrows could not 
get inside of the house. After a while, they, too, 
went away. Then the wrens returned. It seemed 
as if they had been watching for the chance. 

The wrens soon fetched more twigs, some of them 
several inches long. They poked them in as far as 
they would go; then went inside and pulled them in 
as well as they could. But some of the longest ones 
remained partly outside and so blocked the entrance 
to any birds except the tiny wrens. 

Again the English sparrows came and, although 
they couldn't even get their heads in now, still they 
bothered the wrens. They couldn't have that room 
themselves, and they didn't want anybody else to 
have it. 

With such a mean spirit is it any wonder that 
nobody likes these birds .^ I cannot bear to call them 
sparrows any more, because so many good birds go by 
that name, and are therefore in danger of being dis- 
liked. Or, I wish that all the good sparrows could 



38 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

have a different name, and let the EngHsh sparrow 
alone keep the name he has dishonored. 

The boy has told me that, to keep English sparrows 
from increasing around his place, he destroys their 
eggs wherever he can find them. He said that one 
pair of sparrows seemed to blame the bluebirds for 
it, and iii revenge destroyed the bluebirds' nest. 

We kept up the shooing and handclapping when- 
ever English sparrows visited the wren house. After 
a while the wrens began to understand that we were 
trying to help them, and went on with their nesting. 

One day four more wrens came. They looked into 
the empty rooms, — and now there was a perfect 
chorus of wren music all the time. Before night 
two more entrances were blocked. Some of the twigs 
that these wrens brought had such long thorns on 
them that they would not go inside at all. But this 
did not discourage the plucky wrens. They just 
dropped them to the ground and fetched others. 

The next day another pair of wrens came. It 
seemed as if wrens had a way of letting their friends 
know where some nice apartments could be had. I 
was so eager to accommodate as many wrens as 
would come that I had made some one-room houses 
for them. One was mounted in a pear tree; another 
under the overhang of the garage roof. 

This last wren pair seemed quite bewildered with 
so many houses to choose from, and all of them dif- 
ferent. Whenever Mrs. Wren showed preference for ' 



THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 



39 



one house, Mr. Wren would go to another one and 
with his singing try to coax her there. She was seen 
oftener about the house under the garage roof, than 
the others. Mr. Wren seemed to Hke the apartment 
house best. He was such a jolly little fellow, it is no 
wonder he liked to be in a crowd. But Mrs. Wren 
did not care for that at all. A small cottage was her 
choice. After making us believe that she liked the 



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THE SMALL WREN HOUSE IN THE PEAR TREE 



40 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

one under the garage roof, she came with a stick 
about three inches long and flitted about with it. 

Mr. Wren had already put some nesting material 
into the apartment house room. But hard as he 
tried, by singing and by soft chatter, which I suppose 
was coaxing, and by frequent visits to that little room, 
he could not win her over. Her mind was made up, 
and it must be — what.^ Well, it was the small 
house in the pear tree. When Mr. Wren saw that 
he couldn't have his way, why, of course, that small 
house became his choice too. 

Each of these four wren pairs raised some babies. 
But with all their work and family cares, and the 
English sparrows to bother them at times, they were 
always a happy company. They could sing just as 
beautifully when carrying twigs or worms or bugs as 
at any other time. Their happy chorus made a 
continuous open-air concert. And their manners, 
whether at work or at play, were so entertaining that 
I could not bear to take my eyes off them. 

This went on through late April and part of May. 
One morning the wrens were all excited. Two of 
their little ones were on the ground. Our kitty had 
been tethered to a hitching weight; but now, fearing 
one of the little wrens might fly near her, I locked 
her up. The parents were coaxing their little birds 
over toward the vacant lot where the thornapple 
bushes are. These bushes start even with the ground 
and are so dense, and have such long, sharp needles, 



THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 41 

that a cat would get her eyes scratched out if she 
tried to go in. I shall always plant thornapple 
bushes wherever I may live, especially for the pro- 
tection of young birds. And I shall plant several 
close together, so as to make a dense thicket. These 
bushes will provide food for birds, as well as pro- 
tection. 

The way these wrens coaxed their little ones to 
follow was very clever. They would go near them; 
then walk away trailing their wings. This made a 
soft, rustling, coaxing sound. But it was over an 
hour before they succeeded in getting the little ones 
where they wanted them. They had to come back 
to them again and again and keep up the coaxing. 
I was glad when they finally had them safe under 
those thorny branches, where I could not see them 
any more for the leaves. 

By this time two more young were ready to leave 
the house. One was already on the little porch, the 
other peered out of the entrance. These were wiser 
than the first two. Instead of going to the ground, 
one flew to the kitchen roof which was near and 
almost even with the wren house. It was a flat roof 
covered with gravel. Pretty soon the second baby 
also flew to the roof. 

It must indeed be a wonderful event in the life of 
a bird when first he steps out of the crowded little 
home and looks around him at the big outdoors. 
Then what courage it must take to venture on his 



42 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

wings! He has fluttered them a few times over the 
nest, of course, but that is not to be compared with 
just bouncing out into the air and trusting to his 
wings to bear him up. 

The two stayed on the kitchen roof all the rest of 
the day. I put a potted plant out there for them to 
perch on. In the morning one of the baby wrens 
perched for a little while on a window sill, but t'ather 
Wren coaxed him back to the roof. I put several 
more plants out on the roof in order that the fledg- 
lings might exercise their wings and strengthen them 
for the long flight they would have to make to the 
nearest tree. After a while they did fly from plant 
to plant. In this way they spent the rest of the day 
and they liked it so well that they stayed another 
day, and perhaps longer. 

I was absent from home a few days. On my re- 
turn the apartment house was empty of baby birds; 
so also was the small house in the pear tree. The 
wrens were pulling out the feathers and grasses of the 
first nestings, and getting ready to nest again. One 
pair had already begun nesting in the unoccupied 
apartment. Can anyone imagine the hustle and 
bustle of those wren families, cleaning house and 
nesting at the same time, and the joy with which 
they did it.^ That barrel house was like a beehive. 

The one-room house in the pear tree was so made 
that the front could be raised after turning a small 
screw-eye on the side. This made cleaning it easy. 



THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 



43 



Now, aside from furnishing their rooms all over 
again, these wrens had their babies to care for. But 
they seemed the happier the more work they had to 
do. They were just bubbling over with happiness 
all the time; and they made everyone about them 
happy, too. 

I should think everybody would put out wren 
houses and get these jolly little fellows to live near 
them. Wrens are not particular whether they live 
on a porch, in a city yard, or on a farm. They are 
just as happy in one place as another, as long as they 
have a safe little home; and they will rid a place 
of bugs and flies and other unpleasant things. 

So cheery was that summer with all those wrens 
around me, that I hope always to have them as my 
neighbors. 





A BABY WREN ON THE WINDOW SILL 




BLUEBIRDS ARE GREAT HELPERS IN A GARDEN (See page ^ 



VI 
THE BOY 

One day in early April I was in the ravine getting 
hepaticas. Before I knew it I was near the boy's 
house again. His mother called to me from her 
garden. 

"The boy is at home now/' she said; "maybe you 
would like to see him at work." 

44 



THE BOY 45 

I thanked her, and went with her to the little shop. 
There beside his work bench stood a boy about 
twelve or thirteen years old. He was painting the 
wren house a dark green. The bluebird house was 
finished, ready to put up. 

I told him I had put up my bird houses long ago, 
and that the bluebirds had been house hunting for 
some weeks. He said that there were so many 
English sparrows around his place that he feared 
they would nest in his houses if he put them out 
early. But he had just learned of a way to keep the 
sparrows from nesting in bluebird houses. He said 
his manual training teacher had advised him to 
mount his houses for wrens and bluebirds only 
about eight feet from the ground, since the English 
sparrows seldom nest lower than ten feet from the 
ground, and will not be likely to take a house that 
is lower. 

The boy put up the bluebird house while I was 
there, on a young maple that afforded plenty of 
shade. His bluebirds were house hunting too, and 
visited the house right away. 

I told him about the tin sheeting to keep cats and 
squirrels down. He said he had been using tangle- 
foot, the sticky stuff that is sometimes put on trees 
to keep bugs down. But he said that cats and 
squirrels didn't mind climbing over it, and he was 
going to try the tin. 

I fear that the boy was not wise in delaying so 



46 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

long to put up his bird houses. When I saw him 
again, in mid-April, he said that one pair of blue- 
birds had nested in a house that he had intended for 
chickadees; that another pair were in an old hollow 
tree; and that a pair of wrens were visiting the new 
bluebird house. 

Two of his other houses were for woodpeckers, and 
a beautiful new one for purple martins already had 
some tenants. 

''It is two years now that the first martin house 
has been up, and yet I have never had any martins 
to stay!" said the boy. "They would come, go into 
the house and twitter, and then fly away." 

He began talking again about his manual training 
teacher: how she called one day, and told him that 
the martin house was mounted too low, and too 
near trees; that martins want to be fifty feet away 
from a tree or building, and sixteen feet up from the 
ground; also, that it pleases martins to have open- 
ings near the ceiling of their rooms so they can have 
a change of air. 

I remarked that this ventilation would make their 
rooms more comfortable. 

"Yes," said the boy; "and this new martin house 
is made according to teacher's directions." 

As we stood there, martins were flying about, 
twittering, singing, perching on the telephone wires 
near by and on the roof and the porches of their 
house. The pole had hinges so that the house could 



THE BOY 47 

be brought down and cleaned, when necessary, or 
closed. 

One lovely June day found me again at the boy's 
home. I remarked the large number of young robins 
on the lawn. 

''The young have just left their nests in that 
tree," answered the boy, pointing into a big cherry 
tree. ''Robins have nested in that tree every year 
since I can remember." 

I guessed that perhaps the cherries were the at- 
traction. 

"Well," he said, "we think birds earn all the 
cherries they eat; we never pick those on the top 
branches at all, but leave them for the birds." 

During that visit the boy showed me several bird 
homes. First he apologized for doing it. "Every 
bird home is a secret between mother and me," he 
said; then added, "but I know I can trust you." 

One of these little homes belonged to bluebirds. 
The others belonged to the flicker, the wood thrush, 
and the killdeer. 

We walked slowly and talked low, as we went 
from one place to another. Loud talk and running 
frighten birds. And to go very near to a bird nest 
is harmful because, every time the mother is fright- 
ened away, the eggs or young are liable to get chilled 
if the weather is cool. If hot, and the nest is ex- 
posed to the sun, the eggs or young are liable to get 
overheated. 



48 HOW TO HAVE BHID NEIGHBORS 

The boy told me of a marsh hawk's nest which a 
gentleman came to photograph. He said that this 
gentleman brought a lad along to hold his hat over 
the young to shield them from the sun, during the 
mother's absence. The two were there only about 
ten minutes. But evidently that boy told other boys; 
for soon the nest was being visited at all times of 
day. At every visit, the mother flew away, and in a 
few days all the young were dead. 

I remarked that photographing nests should be 
done with the greatest care; that if any screening 
foliage was pushed aside, it should be replaced, and 
the nest left just as the mother bird had planned it. 
It is indeed fortunate that bird photography is so 
difficult that only few people attempt it. Exposing 
a nest to the camera is very apt to result in disaster 
unless it is done by one who has the highest interests 
of birds at heart. 

The flickers had their home in a stump of a tree. 
The entrance was so low I had to stoop in order to 
look in; but the nest was down deep, out of sight. 
Whenever Father or Mother Flicker came with food 
they called softly, "Ye quit! ye quit!" Then the 
babies could be heard making a hissing sound. 
Sometimes when the parents were gone longer than 
usual, a baby flicker could be seen taking a peep at 
the outside world. 

One day during the previous spring while walking 
along the ravine I had seen three of these large brown 



THE BOY 



49 




BABY FLICKER PEEPS AT THE OUTSIDE WORLD 



birds, and had learned their name from hearing them 
sing, ''FHcka flicka flicka." It is easy to get ac- 



50 HOW TO HAVE BHID NEIGHBORS 

quainted with birds who are named after their song. 
One of these birds on that spring day was constantly 
spreading his wings and his tail before the others, 
as if he wanted to show the beautiful yellow 
feathers underneath. Because of these yellow feathers 
the flicker is also called goldenwinged woodpecker. 
Nearly all birds have a scolding word. When the 
flicker wants to scold he says, ''Queer," as plainly as 
a person can say it. 

Of course, we never went near enough to any bird's 
nest to frighten the brooding birds, nor did we stay 
long enough to keep the parents from feeding their 
young. We always found a convenient place fifty 
feet or more away, and through our field glasses 
watched the birds without annoying them. 

I had long known the wood thrush by his yodeling 
song. It usually came out of the thickets and tangles 
in the ravine back of our place, so the singer could 
not easily be seen. At sunrise and sunset, the music 
of the thrushes, singing and answering one another, 
was like bells calling to prayer. From early May 
until mid-July I always wanted to be out mornings 
and evenings to attend the matins and the vespers 
of the wood thrushes. 

Mrs. Wood Thrush tried hard to hide her nest; it 
was completely surrounded by thornbushes. ''Wit- 
a-wit-a-wit," said her mate as we went near; then 
he came out of his hiding place. He had a brown 
back and a white and brown speckled front just like 



THE BOY 



51 




MRS. WOOD THRUSH ON HER NEST 



Mrs. Wood Thrush, who sat serene on her nest all 
this time. She was trusting in something to pro- 
tect her fully; whether it was her brave companion, 
or those bushes bristling with thorns that surrounded 
her nest, I do not know. Maybe she thought we 
didn't see her at all. We pretended not to see her. 

Always, when I find a nest, I turn away and try 
to keep the birds from knowing they have been dis- 
covered. I look out of the corners of my eyes, and 
go away humming a tune. After a while I re- 
turn and walk near by, again singing the same tune. 



52 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

I do this as many times as I can during a day or 
two. Before long the birds seem to know that the 
person who comes singing that tune has never harmed 
them. They remain quiet when I am near, and this 
affords opportunity to observe them more closely. 

Some bluejays were flitting about. Bluejays are 
everywhere, and at all times of the year. The blue- 
jay is that big blue and white bird with handsome 
crest. In early spring he sings some pleasing notes, 
but in autumn and winter he is just noisy. Now he 
was very still. I could just see Mrs. Bluejay's head 
between two branches of a poplar tree. She had a 
nest there, for there were tell-tale twigs hanging over 
on both sides. Mr. Bluejay did not want anybody to 
find her, nor the nest. This was why he kept so still. 

The boy had scattered some peanuts on a bald spot 
in the yard. I asked why he did this during the 
summer time. 

''It keeps the chickadees and woodpeckers coming 
here all summer," said he. 

As we sat there a bluejay came for a peanut and 
went under a tree with it. There he punched a hole 
in the ground with his bill and poked in the nut. 
Then he went to a currant bush and got a leaf. 
Returning to the spot where he had buried the pea- 
nut, he patted the leaf neatly over it. 

A brown and white bird about as big as a robin 
flew overhead singing, ''Killdeer killdeer" as loud and 
as fast as he could. 



THE BOY 



53 




A KILLDEERS NEST IN A POTATO FIELD 



"There goes a killdeer," said the boy. 

So the killdeer is another bird that is named after 
his song! How easy it would be to know birds if all 
were named after their song, like the chickadees and 
the killdeers and the flickers, or after their colors, 
like the bluebirds, or after their actions, like the 
woodpeckers ! 

The boy's father had found a killdeer's nest in a 
potato field when he was plowing. We went to see 
that, too. It was in a patch of ground overgrown 
with weeds because the man had kindly plowed 
around it. Mother Killdeer sat dutifully on the nest 
while Father Killdeer guarded the premises and told 



54 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

us by his various shrieks and somersaults that he 
wished we would not go near enough to disturb 
her. 

On the farm that day I saw the golden-throated 
meadowlark. He is another yodeler. His favorite 
tune is: 

lee- 
"Le- o- 

o- loo" 

His songs ring so clear and flute-like that I can hear 
him away over at our place. He is a brown bob- 
tailed bird. Over a beautiful yellow front he has a 
black band, pointing down in the middle, V-shaped. 
A large company of these birds were in the meadow, 
happy as larks; so they are well named meadowlarks. 
But think of a dear little bird and such a sweet 
singer as the song sparrow, bearing the same name as 
the odious English sparrow! It seems unjust, and 
in this the boy agreed with me. We got to talking 
about the song sparrow because one was on a fence 
post near by, singing over and over this lively ditty: 



The bluebirds' home that the boy had mentioned 
at the beginning of my visit was in a hole of an apple 



THE BOY 



55 




THE BLUEBIRDS IN THEIR PRIMITIVE HOME 



tree. By standing on tiptoe I could look in and see 
four light-blue eggs lying on a nest of grasses that 
looked like a cunning little basket. It was a hot day, 
too hot for Mother Bluebird to stay in that hollow 
tree all the time. She was out playing tag with 
Mr. Bluebird. Perhaps she thought the hot air 
would keep her eggs warm. After she went in again 
he visited her often with food. Before going after 



56 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

more he usually perched on a little knob just above 
the entrance and sang. Sometimes she came out on 
the ledge to listen. It was a winsome sight to see 
the bluebirds in their primitive home. 

This was the bluebirds' second nesting on the farm. 
Their first one had been destroyed by the English 
sparrows. The boy said he had tried in every way 
to help the bluebirds, and that, whenever he saw any 
sparrows near, he gave a sharp whistle — his con- 
fidential whistle, he called it — and that Mrs. Blue- 
bird got so she understood what it meant; that as 
soon as she heard it she would come up on the ledge 
and call, ''Dear, dear-dear." Immediately Mr. Blue- 
bird would appear and drive the intruders away. 

These bluebirds were also annoyed by a red squirrel 
who climbed the trees in the orchard and peered 
into the nest holes. Mr. Bluebird dashed for him 
whenever he saw him, especially if he found him 
near the home tree. Sometimes both the bluebirds 
chased the red squirrel, who would run off barking 
like a little dog. 

The boy had seen how I put out strings and cotton 
and chicken feathers, for the birds' nestings, and he 
had fixed up a "store" — as he called it — on a tree, 
where they could "buy without money." Every 
little while a goldfinch came and got some string. 
Always on coming he sang out, "Perchikatee," as if 
to say, "By your leave." Downy woodpeckers, 
chickadees, and nuthatches were there at this time of 



THE BOY 



57 



the year, although ordinarily they are seen only in 
winter and early spring. 

The boy said it was the ravine, with its trees and 
thickets and tangles, that attracted so many birds. 




EVERY LITTLE WHILE A GOLDFINCH CAME TO 
THE "store" tree AND GOT SOME STRING 



He was always praising that ravine. He thought 
so much of it that he had asked the neighbors not to 
throw rubbish down there, and not to disturb the 
underbrush, which shelters so many birds. He had 
also asked them please to keep their cats indoors at 



58 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

night, because so many birds had nests and helpless 
little ones on the ground, or in low bushes. 

''Mother put me up to that," he said; and added, 
''we are trying to keep that ravine as a sanctuary 
for birds, where they and their little ones can be 
safe." 

Another thing that attracted birds to that place 
was a mulberry tree. Though only two years old, 
it was bearing fruit and was visited by robins, orioles, 
thrashers, and redheaded woodpeckers. 

The boy had so many kinds of birds never seen 
near our place that I began to wish I, too, could live 
on a farm and have so many more of these charming 
neighbors. 

A storm came up. Soon the shallow places in a 
cornfield near by were turned into puddles. The 
baby martins that had been lounging on the porch 
went inside. The old ones came flying home in a 
hurry. We went to the garden house, which the 
boy had fitted up as a workshop because he didn't 
like to deprive his mother any longer of her little 
storeroom. When it stopped raining the sun came 
out and the clean earth fairly glistened. A flock of 
robins came to hunt for worms in the drenched field. 
Some bathed in the puddles. It was amusing to 
watch them chase one away if he stayed in long. 

As we were enjoying the robins, the boy's mother 
called out: "Come here, you bird people, and see 
what has happened." She took us to the living room 



THE BOY 59 

and told us to listen at the chimney. A rasping 
twitter came from within. 

"It must be those chimney swallows," guessed the 
boy. 

He stepped upon a chair and took off the chimney 
cap. There, scrambling around in soot, were some 
black looking birds. 

"One, two, three, four," he counted, as he reached 
in and handed them out on a newspaper. 

Three were young birds, and one was an adult 
bird with long wings. Their nest was also there. 
The heavy rain had loosened it and made it fall. 

The little ones screeched in chorus, and tried con- 
stantly to get hold of something with their claws. 
The older bird gave no sound at all. She seemed to 
be hurt. We called her the mother. 

The lady looked at their little nest. Then she 
went and fetched a basket, and, as soon as the birds 
were removed to it, they began to clamber up the 
sides. When they got to the top, where they could 
hang at full length, they stopped their screeching. 
Only now and then they still gave a rasping sound. 
Perhaps they were hungry, and scolded because 
nobody brought them any food. Some crossed over 
the rim of the basket and tried the other side. 

I stayed there the rest of the afternoon. Every 
ten or fifteen minutes the little birds gave a call, 
like, "Gitse gitse." Thinking that they must be 
almost choked with the soot, I tried to give them 



60 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



water, but they would not open their bills. I forced 
them open with a manicure stick, and gave them a 
drop at a time. They swallowed it when it was 
dropped far down in their throats; otherwise they 
would jerk their heads and throw it out. 

I also moistened a cracker with some egg yolk, 
and mixed into it about fifty flies out of the flytrap; 
then tried to feed the birds with the little stick. By 
prying up their upper mandible I got some flies down 
each bird's throat. The lower mandible was very 
soft and would not bear handling. 




THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS TEMPORARY HOME 



THE BOY 



61 



I became so attached to these birds, I hated to 
leave them, but the time came for me to go home. 
The boy and his mother seemed distressed at the 
prospect of having birds as boarders. There was 
canning to do, besides cooking for extra farm hands; 
and Laddie had to help his father with the haying, 
— so his mother said. 

I oflFered to take the birds and do the best I could 
with them, if the lad was willing. He was; so I took 
the birds and the nest with me in the little basket, 
which was their temporary home. 




THE FLICKER IS ALSO CALLED GOLDEN- 
WINGED WOODPECKER 




CHIMNEY SWIFTS NEST 

VII 
THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 

The correct name of these birds whose home life 
was so rudely broken up is chimney swift. According 
to the bird books, they have been known to fly a 
thousand miles in a day, and they live in chimneys. 
Could any name fit them better? Chimney swifts 
are sometimes called swallows, probably because they 
resemble them somewhat, and twitter like swallows. 
But they are not swallows at all. 

I thought if the birds could have their nest near 
them, it would seem more like home to them. It 
was a tiny nest, a bracket made of twigs which were 
woven together basket fashion and tightly glued. I 
have preserved it as an art treasure. On each side 
is a flat, gluey extension. Wetting this extension 
made it sticky; but it would not stick to the rough 

62 



THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 




ONE OF THESE SWIFT BABIES WAS PUT TO REST IN THE 
NEST, BUT HE DID NOT STAY THERE LONG 



surface of the small basket. I laid it on the smooth 
surface inside a peach basket and put weights on it. 
When it became dry, the nest was stuck fast. 

Then I transferred the swifts from the small basket, 
which had been their temporary home, to the peach 
basket. They perched around the nest. One of these 
babies was put to rest in the nest, but he did not 
stay there long. They all clambered up to the edge 
and from time to time they changed places, sometimes 
crossing over the edge of the basket from one side to 
the other. 



64 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

It was fortunate that this happened during my 
vacation, because the care of a baby bird demands 
much time. He has to be fed regularly and often.* 
Having several birds to feed is about enough to take 
up all one's time. 

If they only had opened their bills when they were 
hungry, it would have been much easier to feed these 
swifts. Their very short but wide bills had to be 
pried open every time and the food poked down their 
throats. I tried to feed them every fifteen or twenty 
minutes. It took so long to feed each one, that 
usually, by the time I had finished with number 
four, it was necessary to begin feeding number one 
again. 

The food I gave them was bread soaked in warm 
milk, with plenty of flies mixed in. For a change I 
mixed the bread with a raw yolk. I gave them warm 
water occasionally. It seemed to me they needed it 
after having come through that niass of soot. 

At the end of the first day the young were as 
chipper and bright as any young birds. Instead of 
screeching they began to twitter, "Gitse gitse." The 
mother was very still. She did not seem to care for 
her babies at all, and did not go near to keep them 
warm. She just hung in the one position. Several 
times she tried to fly, but she could only fly a few 
feet; then she fell to the floor. 

During the second day the young seemed to be 
doing well. They preened themselves, and their 



THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 65 

« 

blackish breasts were changed to gray. It was a 
cool day, and I set the basket where the sun would 
shine on the birds. They fluffed their feathers as if 
they enjoyed the warmth. Once in a while one 
tried to fly, but he always fluttered to the ground 
and had to be brought back. The mother tried her 
wings again and again. She got so she could fly a little 
farther at every attempt, before she went to the 
ground. At about five o'clock she flew far enough 
to get out of sight. 

All the next day I kept the peach basket with 
these swifts in it outdoors, hoping the mother would 
return and feed them. But she did not return. 

On the following day these birds began to look 
feeble. I went to the telephone and called up a 
gentleman^ who is an authority on birds, and asked 
him what I should do. He said the main thing was 
to keep the birds evenly warm; that more young 
birds die from chill than from hunger. To revive 
them he said I should put a few drops of whiskey in 
a glass of water and give them each a few drops; 
then I should try to get them some gnats, or a 
grub from the garden, mince it well, and feed it to 
them. Flies, he said, had not much nourishment in 
them. 

On returning I found that two of the little birds 
had died. I determined to try hard to save the re- 
maining one. It was impossible to get whiskey 

^ Dr Francis H. Herrick, author of " The Home Life of Wild Birds." 



66 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

because I live in a temperance town. I gave the 
little bird a weak solution of baking soda because 
he had a big lump in his craw. Then I wrapped him 
in a silken scarf, and warmed him beside the cook 
stove as I have seen baby chicks revived when they 
have been chilled by a sudden rain. The lump dis- 
appeared. He brightened up. I could find no grubs; 
but a few grasshoppers, some ant larvae, and several 
juicy green cabbage worms were food enough for 
the rest of that day. I kept the bird in his wrap- 
pings all day, but fixed it so he could clamber on to 
the basket. At night I put him away warm and snug, 
and seemingly happy. The first sound I heard the 
next morning was "Gitse gitse." 

The little bird was ready for a meal. From an ant 
hill near by I got more ant larvae, something which 
all young birds like. For the first time now he 
swallowed food just as soon as it got inside his bill. 
Up to this time he had jerked it out unless' it was 
poked down. But he still refused to open his bill. 

He did not care for the nest and never would stay 
on it. So I fixed him again in the little basket 
where he would be more snug. I had lined it with 
cotton batting and woolen cloth so his breast would 
be against a soft, warm surface. I also kept him at 
an even temperature, and fed him regularly. The 
little basket was on my work table. He seemed to 
enjoy being near me and being talked to. Sometimes 
he flew over on my shoulder. I fed him more cabbage 



THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 67 

worms and grasshoppers, and also gave him water 
occasionally. 

I could not forgive myself to think I hadn't asked 
for advice sooner. I felt sure that, had I done so the 
first day I took charge of these birds, and then fol- 
lowed instructions, the two would not have died. 

Again at the close of the day Baby Swift was put 
away in his warm wrappings. In the morning I did 
not hear the usual, ''Gitse gitse." Baby Swift had 
gone to the bird heaven. 

It had been a big undertaking to adopt those 
homeless birds; but I am glad for several reasons 
that I did it. 

First, I am glad that I helped them in their trouble. 

Second, I am glad I relieved the boy and his busy 
mother of caring for them. 

Third, I am glad because I have since read in the 
bird books that the chimney swift is a very useful 
bird; that he feeds wholly on troublesome insects. 

Fourth, I am glad because it gave me opportunity 
to get acquainted with one more bird. I consider 
that something worth while. 



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A ROBIN S NEST 



VIII 
BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 

One day, on looking up into a tree in the vacant 
lot, what should I see there? A mother robin just 
dropping a worm into her baby's open beak. 

The nest was right in the crotch where the trunk 

68 



BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 69 

forks into two main branches. So many robins' 
nests are blown off the branches by the wind, or 
washed off by heavy rains, that I was glad to see 
this nest firmly saddled on that strong trunk. But 
a second thought told me that it was easy for cats 
and squirrels to get at, so I studied how to make it 
safe. 

All the tin sheeting had been used up; but I knew 
where there was some old stove pipe. A kind 
neighbor ripped it open. One piece was not wide 
enough to go around the tree, so I had to use two. 
Mrs. Cotton, who had again become my neighbor, 
having built a bungalow on one of the vacant lots, 
came to help me. She said it wasn't good for the 
tree to drive nails into it, and fetched some wire. 
Meanwhile, I got the stepladder; for the sheeting must 
be high enough so that cats and squirrels cannot 
jump from the ground to the trunk above it. We 
used only two small nails, to keep the wires from 
slipping. 

Of course, the robins scolded while we were doing 
this. They never liked to have anybody near their 
tree. 

After a week the young ones were sitting on the 
edge of the nest. I knew then that they would soon 
leave it, and I began to keep a close watch on them, 
and on the cats of the neighborhood. 

If all cats belonged to people, and had to be kept 
on their own premises, little birds would be much 



70 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

safer. As it is, cats may roam wherever they please. 
They can crouch in tall grasses, flower beds, shrubs, 
and other places, ready to pounce on any bird that 
comes near enough. Homeless cats who have to 
hunt their living are the greatest menace to birds, 
especially to young birds who are not yet wise to 
the dangers that surround them. Now who is to 
blame .^ Surely not the cats. Instead of continually 
berating the cats, let the friends of birds secure laws 
to license cats, to compel people to keep their cats 
on their own premises, to punish people for putting 
cats astray, and to put homeless cats out of their 
misery. 

One June day, while walking along the ravine, 
I saw three robins on the ground. I went to the 
tree to see if the young had all left the nest, and 
found that one was still there. He looked down, as 
if he would like to go to join his brothers; but he 
seemed to be afraid to leave the safe little home. 
The parents brought food to him and also to those 
on the ground. Whenever the parents went to the 
one on the nest, they urged him to come over to 
some of the near branches; but he stayed on the nest 
as if glued to it. Finally, one of the parents got be- 
hind him and just politely pushed him off. He spread 
his wings to fly, but fluttered to the ground. Instead 
of continuing my walk that morning I stayed with 
the robins. About a hundred feet away I could see 
them well with my field glasses. My neighbor, 



BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 71 

Mrs. Cotton, was just as much interested in these 
birds as I was. They could not fly well yet. Be- 
tween us we saw to it that no harm befell them that 
day. 

Towards evening the robins also sought the pro- 
tection of those bristly thornapple bushes. One by 
one they coaxed the young in that direction. 

During that night a great storm came up of light- 
ning and thunder and rain. I was sorry for the young 
robins, but had no doubt that their parents shielded 
them. I have seen a mother bird sit faithfully on 
the nest when the rain was pelting her mercilessly. 
Mother love knows no discomforts. 

I think all birds enjoy a good shower; they always 
sing joyously as soon as it clears again, and sometimes 
while it is still raining. Some also enjoy a shower 
bath. Sometimes they finish it with a ducking in 
the basin. Those that do not care for the shower 
usually know where to find a comfortable place during 
a heavy downpour. On such occasions, I have seen 
them take refuge in trees, close to the trunk where it 
is steady and where the foliage is dense over them. 
And I have seen them go for shelter under rail fences, 
such as there are in the country, where the rails are 
broad enough to protect a little bird. I have also 
seen birds come out from under a corn-crib after a 
rain, so I presume they had gone under it for shelter. 

After the robins had left their nest I took the 
sheeting off the tree. It is said that the bark of a 



72 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

tree is its lungs through which it breathes. I want 
all the trees around me to breathe deeply of the 
precious air, so I try always to save the bark. It is 
much easier to take off the wires than it is to take 
nails out of a tree. Already some insects had made 
nests and cocoons under this sheeting. 

My way of getting acquainted with birds was by 
keeping a notebook. In it I wrote everything I saw 
any bird do: what he ate, how he sang, what he 
looked like, where he was generally seen, etc. I 
always watched a bird as long as it stayed in sight. 
When it left I observed its flight and its shape. Then 
I looked at the colored pictures in my bird books, to 
see if I could find a bird similar to mine. If I did 
find him, then I read all about him to see whether 
that bird ate the kind of food, and acted, and flew, 
and sang, in the way my strange bird did. If he did, 
then I knew I had made the acquaintance of a new 
bird. 

For instance, I had written about one bird: 

''Rather plump, head pointed, bill long. Head and 
back olive. Front yellow. Wings dark with white 
bars. Tail brown with dark marks. Is on the fence 
getting strings. Also visits the basin. Never sings. 
Likes bread crumbs. Nearly as large as robin." 

Sometimes there came with this bird a beautiful 
black and orange bird. In a little pocket guide I 
found both these birds pictured as mates. They 
were the Baltimore orioles. She was the bird I had 



BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 73 

described in my notebook. While she was getting 
strings, her mate was usually up. in a tree somewhere 
near, singing. 

It was no wonder that the orioles needed so many 
strings. They made a baglike nest on the tip end of 
a branch in Mrs. Cotton's elm. The wind used to 
swing that nest like a hammock. I often thought 
how nice it must be for those baby orioles to be 
rocked by the wind and to have such a fine musician 
for their father. 

Mrs. Cotton was keeping her cat housed during 
those days. Moreover, she threw bread out on her 
lawn every day for any birds that might want it. The 
orioles were among the birds that went there; they 
preferred graham or entire wheat bread to white bread. 

Other birds that came to my yard were the brown 
thrasher, the goldfinch, and the redheaded wood- 
pecker. They had their nests along the ravine. 

The redheaded woodpecker's home was in a hole 
of an old tree near the ravine. He had a guttural 
call, "Chr-r-r," which was pleasant to hear. Near 
the nest tree was a big stone which he used as a 
convenient perch. Mrs. Woodpecker did not have 
the showy head and neck of her companion; her head 
was of a rusty color and the white on her wings was 
spotted with black. Both used to come and drink 
at the basin, and to get suet. During the summer 
he often brought two of his babies to the food sta- 
tions. The babies could help themselves pretty well 



74 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



to suet; but the peanuts were a puzzle to them. 
They just pecked into the shell and tried to eat that. 
Usually, before the babies arrived, the father came 
and perched on some high point and looked all 
around. If all was to his liking, he sounded his 
rattling tattoo. The babies always came so promptly 
that it was evident he had hidden them somewhere 
near, probably with orders to await his signal before 
venturing farther. 

I think the brown thrasher must have had a large 
family; he used to tear off pieces of bread and carry 




NLVR TIILJ NEST TREE WAS A BIG STONE WHICH THE 
REDHEADED WOODPECKER USED AS A PERCH 



BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 75 

them away from the bird table. Once he carried off 
a piece of cheese that kept him traihng near the 
ground, it was so heavy. A blackbird followed and 
tried to take it, but the thrasher got away from him. 

A queer thing about the brown thrasher is his song. 
It is made up of real words and sentences, and he 
sings everything twice or more times. If you should 
ever hear a big brown bird, with a long reddish tail 
and speckled breast, sing, *' Beverly Beverly," ''Peter 
Peter," "Tell it to me! Tell it to me!" ''Come 
here! Come here!" and such things, then you have 
heard the brown thrasher. If you will look high 
enough you can almost surely see him too, in the 
top of a high tree. He loves to be seen as well as 
heard. 

Mrs. Brown Thrasher looked just like her mate. 
She had hidden her nest so well that I did not jfind 
it until it was empty. It was in a dense thicket. 
I knew it was hers because she was still near. "lo-it! 
io-it!" she scolded, until I went away. One little 
baby thrasher was on a branch of the thicket. The 
mother was guarding him. 

The goldfinches were very late with their house- 
keeping. In July they were still gathering strings 
and cotton for their nesting. They are just as polite 
and gentle as the chickadees. Their name fits so 
well that anybody who sees these yellow birds, just 
like canaries with black wings and tail, ought to 
know them at once. Their song usually starts with 



76 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 




EACH LITTLE GOLDFINCH CALLED AS LOUD AS HE COULD 



*' Sweet sweet sweet/' and the rest is a regular canary 
song. They are sometimes called wild canaries. 

The young goldfinches loved to sit on the edge of 
their nest as soon as they were old enough. As they 
sat there they chattered to each other, "Ze bebe, 
ze bebe," and fluttered their wings a great deal. 
When I found their nest I was surprised that I 
hadn't seen it before; it was low on a buckeye. 

When the young goldfinches left their nest it 
seemed as if they wanted to get acquainted with 
people. They came down on the lowest branches, 



BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 77 

and quite near the house. One alighted on the 
clothesHne. Whenever Father or Mother came with 
food there was the greatest fluttering of wings. 
Each one called, ''Ze bebe ze bebe/' as loud as he 
could, and opened wide his bill to catch what the 
parents tossed or squirted out to him. It was no 
living, squirming thing, but a pulpy mass. 

The young were yellow in front, olive on the back, 
and they had black wings with brown and white 
bars. The black tail was edged with white. 

Goldfinches like sunflower seeds. But the main 
reason why they are so useful and so well liked is 
that they eat large quantities of thistle seeds and 
dandelion seeds. 

When cold weather came the parent goldfinches 
were no longer so beautifully yellow, for they had put 
on their gray autumn coats. 




A YOUNG GOLDFINCH ALIGHTED ON THE CLOTHESLINE 




THIS MARTIN SCOUT BROUGHT A LADY WITH HIM 



IX 

THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 

The purple martins like a house with many rooms, 
so they can live together in a large company. Since 
the martins belong to the swallow family, to call 
them purple swallows would, it seems to me, be more 
informing. 

My friend who had sent me the wren apartment 

78 



THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 79 

house was so pleased with its success that he sent 
me also a martin house. It is four stories high 
and has twenty-six rooms. Around each story are 
porches, some of them several inches wide. 

It pleases birds to have their houses look, before 
they occupy them, as if they had been out in all 
sorts of weather. So, for several weeks before this 
martin house was set up, it lay out in the yard to 
be rained and snowed on. 

One cold March day a purple bird came in at my 
window. He perched on picture frames, twittered a 
little, and went out again. According to the bird 
books, my little visitor was a purple martin. Maybe 
he had seen the martin house on the lawn, and came 
to ask me to put it up. Anyway, the next day it 
was mounted in the farthest corner of the garden. 
For, according to the directions that came with the 
house, martins want their houses to be fifty feet away 
from any building or tree, and on a pole at least 
sixteen feet high. 

In early April another martin came; or maybe it 
was the same one, returning to see whether the house 
had been put up. Martins always send one of their 
number ahead to look up a house for them. He is 
called a scout. This martin scout perched on the 
wires nearby, and tried repeatedly to alight on one 
of the porches of the martin house. But some 
English sparrows were there; they also wanted that 
house. Every time the scout went near, these 



80 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

sparrows flew at him and kept him from getting a 
foothold on the house. Sometimes he managed to 
perch on the roof and there wait for a chance to 
get inside. But the sparrows were too many for 
him. Now and then he gave a sad note, as if he 
were discouraged and caUing for help. Then again 
it seemed as if something had encouraged him, and 
he sang out clearly something like this: 

"Whew whew whew 

tr-r-r-r 

cho cho cho cho." 

After holding out against the sparrows for three 
days, he went away. About a week later I heard a 
sweet and happy twitter. Several martins were 
flying around the house. I had named it The 
Martins' Aircastle. By this time the English spar- 
rows had begun nesting in some of the rooms. 

The martins perched on the wires in front of the 
house and made a saucy chatter, calling the sparrows 
all sorts of names, I suppose. The sparrows jabbered 
back at them. In about an hour the martins left. 

Early the next morning another flock of martins 
came. Some perched on the wires, some on the roof, 
and some on the porches of the martin house. Others 
flew around in big circles. All were twittering and 
calling in their happiest manner. 

I had driven the sparrows away the night before, 
and this is how I did it: I put a few big nails into 



THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 



81 




THE MARTINS AIRCASTLE 



a tin can, then closed the can and tied it to a long 
stick. With this stick I banged the can against the 
martin house pole again and again. It frightened 



82 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

the sleeping sparrows. By the moonUght I could 
see six come out and fly away; but I think there were 
more. 

Two pairs of sparrows came back in the morning. 
They had made their nests side by side in the third 
story. Long grasses were hanging out from the en- 
trances. Perhaps the martins were sorry for them; 
anyway, it looked as if they were willing to play 
fair. They did not chase them off any more; and 
the sparrows, being now so few, no longer molested 
the martins. 

The martins now began to clean house. There 
were wads of chicken feathers and some broken eggs 
among the rubbish which they threw out. This was 
soon replaced by straws and sticks which they 
brought for their own nesting. I could only count 
twelve pairs of martins, so that there were plenty of 
rooms for them and the sparrows too. I suppose 
one reason why the sparrows were unwelcome is 
because they are such untidy housekeepers as to 
render close neighboring with them insanitary. 

The more I see of martins, the better I like them. 
They are always cheerful, always busy. Their shiny, 
purple plumage, broad shoulders, and tapering body 
give them a distinguished air. These purple birds 
are the father martins. The mother martins' back 
feathers, when exposed to the sunlight, have all the 
shades of violet. In front they are cream-colored, and 
finely speckled. 



THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 83 

These violet-colored ones stayed around home 
more than the others; this is why I took them to be 
the mothers. The father martins flew around and 
brought in the provisions, which they caught on 
the wing. On returning a martin would sometimes 
sit on the porch and sing into the room to his 
mate; or she would come out to him, and the two 
would coo to each other in the most affectionate 
manner. 

The martins were also friendly with all their bird 
neighbors. But they were so high up that their 
housekeeping was for the most part a secret which 
they wanted to keep to themselves. It was hard to 
tell what they had to eat, except when one caught 
a dragonfly or a grasshopper. When one got a big 
catch like that, he usually held it squirming in his 
bill a while as if he was proud of it and wanted to 
show it off. Or maybe he tried in this way to pro- 
long the enjoyment of it. When it began to dis- 
appear in his bill the body always went first and the 
wings last. 

Martins are not strong on their feet. Even when 
walking around on the porches of their house they 
just waddled, like ducks. But at flying they are 
masters. They can soar high, almost out of sight, 
then shoot straight down and skim along close to the 
ground. 

Sometimes the martins visited the basin to get a 
drink or to bathe. One of their favorite pastimes 



84 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

was to roll in the sand in our garden. When around 
home they loved to perch on the wires or lounge on 
the porches. They also visited a bald tree not far 
off, and there preened themselves. I never saw them 
visit trees that had foliage on them. 

Some more English sparrows tried from time to 
time to come back. It seemed as if they watched 
for the martins to go away. Then they would come 
and peer into the rooms, and even go in. The mar- 
tins, however, always left one of their number on 
guard, for usually the intruders were soon chased 
away. 

Once a martin caught an English sparrow in his 
room. He went in, but kept one wing outside, and 
that wing flapped and fluttered just like a flag in a 
high wind. No doubt the sparrow got a good beat- 
ing with the other wing. Sounds of ''Kr-r-r! kr-r-r!" 
came from the room. ''Kr-r-r!" is the scolding 
word of the martins. It sounds as if someone, 
walking beside a picket fence, were scraping it with a 
stick. I have often heard the martins say it to the 
sparrows, but never have I heard them use it among 
themselves. They are the most contented birds, 
always polite and kind to one another. For good 
behavior I have put them on the honor roll with the 
chickadees and the goldfinches. 

The martins are also wonderful singers and 
whistlers. They sing all day long, and often after 
dark. Their song is made up of three parts: a 



THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 85 

sibilant or smacking twitter, a trill, and a whistle. 
To me it sounds something like this: 

tr-r-r-r hee 

"Hee^ / \ * / ^ho-ho-ho." 

chut-chut-chut ho 

They keep this up in a sort of conversational fashion, 
and as they do so are continually changing places on 
the housetop, the porches, or the wires. 

In June the baby martins began to lounge on the 
porches and to sun themselves on the wires. After 
a while there were more babies. The porches were 
covered with them. My! how busy those parents 
were! As babies increased in numbers, evidently the 
parents felt that the older ones ought to become 
self-supporting; but they preferred to spend their 
days preening and twittering and being waited on. 
The parents pecked and scolded them, and finally 
pushed them off their perches to make them go and 
hunt food for themselves. 

One day after the second batch of babies had ap- 
peared outside, two hawks came and perched on the 
telephone wires near the martin home. My d^ttention 
was attracted to them by the guttural calls or scold- 
ings of the martins. As they called, they flew swiftly 
to and from the house, and around in big circles. 
Soon the wires were lined with martins that had come 
from other colonies, and the air was rent with their 
guttural shriekings. Evidently they felt that these 



86 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

big birds were a great menace to their young. To 
the credit of the EngHsh sparrows it must be said 
that they also flew around with the martins, and 
tried to help them call attention to the danger. The 
hawks stayed about fifteen minutes, looking con- 
stantly in all directions; for they were completely 
surrounded by the vigilant and frantic martins all 
that time. Then they flew into a bald tree near by, 
and after looking on from there a while they flew 
away. They returned a few times after that, but 
never again stayed long enough to cause such a 
commotion. 

After the young were all able to fly, the whole 
company was usually away most of the day. Early 
in the morning when they were getting ready to go, 
and at sunset time when they returned, there was 
always a great demonstration, with trilling, and 
twittering, and whistling, about the house and on the 
wires. The home-coming of the martins was a daily 
event to which not only we, but our neighbors also, 
looked forward. 

Then, as night set in, there was a steady chorus of 
cooing as if each martin mother were singing a lullaby 
to her numerous babies. We used to wonder how 
they all existed in those rooms, six inches square by 
six inches high. For no matter how hot the night, 
they all went inside before midnight. 

One evening my former neighbor, Mrs. Daily, was 
present when the martins returned. She also had 



THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 



87 




i';;.V"""H 







Photo by Joseph H. Dodson 

THE HOME-COMING OF THE MARTINS 



put up a martin house, but so far it had not been 
occupied. 

''Your house has such wide porches, and mine 
hasn't any," she remarked, as she watched the re- 
turning birds sit on the porches and coo to each 
other. "And," she added, ''I have been told that 
my house is too near the garage." 

It is true that martins are not easily attracted; 
but when once they have accepted a house they will 
be steady summer tenants for years. When I think 
what a pleasure it is to have a flock of these lovely 
birds, year after year, from April to September, I 



88 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

wonder that any good-sized yard is without a martin 
house. Martins are content to Hve anywhere, in 
town or country. All they want is the right kind of 
a house with plenty of room around it, and they like 
some wires near by for perches. 

It seems to me that a martin house, perched high 
in broad sunlight, needs ventilation. But this must be 
provided without causing drafts. It can be provided 
by making a half-inch horizontal slit on the inner 
walls just below the ceiling, something like the 
ventilation in a steamer cabin. Martins will not 
tolerate drafts. Then if the two topmost rooms in 
the martin house are made to connect by means of a 
hole two and a half inches in diameter, next to the 
ceiling, this will greatly assist the visiting scout. 
When English sparrows see the scout enter the house, 
they will lie in wait where he entered, expecting to 
molest him when he comes out. But if he can leave 
at another exit and get his colony while the sparrows 
still wait for him, they will have to surrender when 
he returns. It is a question of numbers. This kind 
of house, even though it have only six or eight rooms, 
will attract martins, and promise a good beginning in 
martin lore. 

My neighbor, Mrs. Cotton, has now a martin house 
also. It has ten rooms, ventilated as described above 
and with the two upper rooms connecting. There being 
no telephone wires near enough, a wire running over 
the house on four uprights serves the same purpose. 



THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 80 

The first martin that was seen to visit this house 
brought a lady martin with him. Maybe he had 
been there before, alone, without being noticed. The 
pair inspected the rooms, then perched on the wire 
overhead and preened. Every Httle while Mr. 
Martin twittered: 




This pair took possession of the upper east room. 
The next day four more martins came. One pair 
took a lower east room, the other took the south 
room. It looked as though the wire on top and the 
ventilation pleased them. I was overjoyed that this 
house, which I had designed, proved satisfactory to 
these notional birds. 

The dimensions of the rooms in this house are six 
inches square by seven inches high. The diameter of 
the entrances is two and a half inches; the width of 
porch five inches. The pole extends through the 



90 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

center of the house and is screwed to the roof. The 
rest of this house is held in place by means of a bolt 
underneath, which can be taken out and the house — 
without its roof — let down to be cleaned. 

Now listen to the good that martins do: A martin 
will eat mosquitoes by the thousand every day, be- 
sides many insects that injure fruit trees and spoil 
the fruit. To protect their young, martins will drive 
away hawks and other big birds that come near. In 
this way they also protect any poultry yard near by. 
On moonlight nights they hunt the moths and millers 
until midnight. 

In late August the martins began to assemble in 
ever increasing numbers, getting ready for the journey 
to their winter home, which is said to be in Central 
and South America. 

During one of the days while those gatherings were 
going on, the boy was here. The martins had, by this 
time, become so confiding that we could go clear up 
to the pole on which their house was mounted, — and 
they would stay on the wires and look down at us! 
I told the boy how I had driven the sparrows away 
from the martin house, and showed him the stick with 
the can tied to it. He tried it on the nearest tele- 
phone pole, and instantly all the martins flew up from 
the wires. For a few seconds, until they settled back 
on their perches, it looked like a great gathering in 
mid-air. 

The father martins were much darker at this time 



THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 



91 



than in the Spring, — in fact, almost black. Mother's 
pretty violet hues had faded to gray. Baby Martin 
was brownish-gray on the back, and light in front. 

One day the whole colony departed, a jolly com- 
pany, leaving us sad indeed, but hopeful that they would 
return with the Spring flowers. 





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A GREAT GATHERING IN MID-AIR 




A BATH FOR BIRDS AND A LUNCH BESIDE IT 



X 

MORE ABOUT THE BOY 

I AM sure that the farm at the end of our street is 
like home to the birds of the neighborhood, 'and that 
that good boy is big brother to them all. He always 
has a bath for the birds set out on a table, and a 
lunch beside it. 

''You would be surprised to see how well the birds 
like oatmeal mush and other cereals," said he, the 
last time I was there. "Just watch that song spar- 
row!" 

92 



MORE ABOUT THE BOY 93 

The little brown bird was feeding on a shredded 
wheat biscuit. She stayed long enough to eat a 
hearty meal; then took away as much as she could 
carry in her bill. While I sat there she returned 
several times for more. 

We were out in the boy's workshop. He had just 
finished making what he called a food house. It was 
a tray roofed over, ''to keep out the rain and snow," 
he said. 

I remarked that it was early (it was in July) to 
talk about snow. 

"Oh," said he, "this is one of my vacation jobs. 
After school begins I won't have time for these things. 
I'll be a freshman in High, you know." 

The tray was about a foot long and not quite so 
wide. On each side there was a wire pocket to hold 
suet. Four neat, round sticks supported the roof, 
which he said was made out of the sides of a soap 
box. 

I asked where he got those fine round sticks and 
that pretty tray. He said the sticks were scraps 
from his uncle's cabinet shop, and that he got the 
tray from the grocer. The name "Neufchatel" was 
printed on the sides of the tray in big letters. 

I said, ''Wouldn't it be nice if all the Neufchatel 
cheese boxes were made into food trays for birds.^" 

''Yes," he answered, "I know that our grocer 
would rather give his boxes away for some useful 
purpose than to burn them." 



94 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

I admired the little food house so much that the 
boy gave me some sticks so that I could make one, 
too. 

Then he told me of a pair of cedar waxwings that 
had nested in the orchard, and a pair of crested 
flycatchers in a woodpecker's house. I was very 
curious to see the waxwings, so we went to them first. 
The nest was about ten feet up in an apple tree. 
With our field glasses we could see it quite plainly 
from under the nearest tree. Mrs. Waxwing was 
sitting up there; we could just see her head and her 
tail. Mr. Waxwing visited her every few minutes 
with some food. They were the quietest birds I 
have ever seen. What they did say or sing was in 
very soft tones, as if they were telling each other 
secrets. I hummed parts of the little song occasion- 
ally. When I explained to the boy why I did so, 
he smiled, and looked as if he didn't quite believe 
me. 

We went from the waxwings to the flycatchers. 
They lived in what the boy called a Berlepsch house. 
That means it was designed by a man named Ber- 
lepsch who was a great friend of birds. The boy 
said his uncle in New York had sent him the house 
as a birthday present. What could be a nicer gift 
for a boy than a bird house. ^ It would make him 
want to get birds in it, of course. And I can think 
of nothing that would make a boy happier than to 
have bird neighbors. 



MORE ABOUT THE BOY 



95 




THE CRESTED FLYCATCHER AND A BERLEPSCH HOUSE 



The Berlepsch house was made so one could raise 
the top, Hd-fashion, and clean it when necessary. It 
was mounted about twelve feet high on a brook 



96 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

willow that stood aslant in the ravine; and it had 
been intended for woodpeckers. The crested fly- 
catchers are brown birds with gray upper breast and 
yellow below. Their headfeathers are always ruffed, 
which gives the appearance of a crest. 

The flycatchers were flying back and forth con- 
tinually with all sorts of prey. The brown bugs called 
"Canadian soldiers" were numerous that day and were 
easy to catch. These parent birds evidently had a 
large family, judging from the amount of food they 
delivered. 

Mr. Flycatcher had a loud, explosive whistle. It 
sounded as if he were saying: 

at r 

a- 

"Wha- 

The young could be heard giving the same whistle, 
but much more softly, and somewhat long drawn 
out: 

at.?" 
a- 
a- 
"Wha- 

After our visit with the flycatchers we returned to 
the waxwings. Waxwings are brown and about the 
size of bluebirds. On the back of the head they have 
a tuft. A black line extends across the bill, and 



MORE ABOUT THE BOY 97 

around the side of the head. The front is yellowish- 
gray and the tail edged with yellow. The name, 
waxwing, is due to a shiny red patch on their 
wings. The fact that these wax wings are very fond 
of cedar berries must be what has given them also 
the name of cedar bird. The nest was made of twigs, 
strings, and various kinds of fiber. The boy said 
that a few weeks ago he had cut his dog's hair and 
left it lying on the lawn: that these waxwings then 
came and carried every bit of it to their nest. 

While near the birds I hummed the bird song 
again, to let them know that the same persons were 
there that had visited them before. The mother 
bird was looking straight at us and sitting perfectly 
still all the while. The boy said he believed the song 
did help to keep her quiet. 

On a cornice of the front porch a phoebe had made 
two nests, one last year and one this. Both nests 
were now empty. I said I hoped that a phoebe 
would come to live on our porch next year. 

'^You can have this one," answered the boy; and 
added, '*I have to wash off the porch every day 
while Phoebe is nesting: she scatters so much 
mud." 

As for me, I would gladly clean oflP our porch 
several times a day if a phoebe would nest here and 
sing as sweetly, *' Phoebe, phoebe," as I heard that 
one sing. Sometimes I noticed a slight trill in the 
second syllable of her song, like "Phoebery." She 



98 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



sang ''Phoebe" with the inflection generally down- 
ward; but when she trilled it, ''Phoebery/' the in- 
flection was always upwards: 



ry. 



be- 



''Phoe- 




BOB WHITE S SHELTER 



ee 



Te^ e- 

e- e- 

a- e- 

wee- 



came up from the ravine, clear as a strain from a 
flute. On my way home I saw the pewee on a fence 
picket. Every little while he flew after an insect, 



MORE ABOUT THE BOY 99 

then back to a picket. As I walked slowly along, 
he flew from picket to picket ahead of me, until I 
came to where the houses on the street begin again. 
Then he flew back. I think that pewee and phoebe 
must be some relation, they look so nearly alike. 
And both sing their own names. 

Another bird who sings his name is Bob White, 
the quail. "Bob WkiteV came ringing across the 
meadow every little while. The boy could whistle it 
exactly the same as the bird, and they answered each 
other back and forth. Bob White was on a fence 
post, — a large brown bird with a stubby tail. 

On Thanksgiving Day I was up at the farm again, 
and I saw a shelter which the boy had made for the 
winter comfort of Bob White, and other birds who 
wished to share it. It was tent-like, made out of 
cornstalks, the inside filled with pea vines, bean vines, 
morning-glory vines, and several sheaves of oats. 
Kitty was watching beside the shelter, — for mice, 
the boy explained! 

The new food house was being visited by blue jays, 
who nibbled at the suet. A smaller f eedery on a tree 
had corn in a tray and suet in a wire pocket. This 
fe^edery was much liked by downies, and small gray 
birds with white on wings and tail — j uncos. These 
j uncos came in flocks of a dozen or more, and twit- 
tered, ''Tut, tut, tut," to each other and to us, in 
sociable fashion. They preferred to pick up the scat- 
terings of chickfeed on the ground, rather than perch 



100 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 




THE NEW FOOD HOUSE WAS VISITED BY BLUEJAYS 



on the tray. Both of these food stations were pro- 
tected with tin sheeting to keep the squirrel from eat- 
ing the birds' food. This visit at the boy's home made 



MORE ABOUT THE BOY 



101 



me wish more than ever that some day I, too, might 
Hve on a farm. 

On that Thanksgiving Day I had quite a surprised 
Some dogs came barking from the ravine. Before 
them ran a rabbit just as fast as he could. They 
were the dogs that had so often chased Bunny, and 
this rabbit looked so much like Bunny, that I felt 
sure it was he. 

"There's my rabbit/' said the boy, as he went to 
chase the dogs away. I was glad to know that 
Bunny had such a nice home, and that the boy was 
a big brother to him also. 




A FEEDERY MUCH LIKED BY DOWNY 



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A TREE TRIMMED WITH PEANUTS FOR THE BIRDS 



XI 

THE CARDINALS 

Having often seen cardinals feed in poultry yards 
with chickens, I again started to scatter chickfeed, 
hoping to attract those beautiful birds to my house. 
Chickfeed is finer than chickenfeed, and I believe the 
birds like it better. 

Every winter I trimmed up an old tree with pea- 
nuts for the birds' Christmas, and always after a snow- 

102 



THE CARDINALS 103 

storm I tramped the snow down; then scattered the 
feed on it, with buckwheat and sunflower seeds added. 

At first only nuthatches, chickadees, and juncos 
came to my lunches on the snow. One stormy day 
a cardinal ventured into our front yard; but he did 
not go near the chickfeed. Several juncos were there, 
and maj^be he wanted to be generous and leave it all 
to the smaller birds. 

He kept coming nearer to the house. At last he 
flew pell-mell into our porch. It seemed as if the 
wind had blown him in. On a little shelf behind the 
windshield he alighted and stayed. 

After a while another bird flew to the little shelf. 
I hadn't noticed this bird before, my attention being 
taken up with the cardinal. This second bird was 
reddish green. In my little bird guide I had seen 
pictures of the two cardinals, so I knew that she was 
the red one's mate. 

The cardinal pecked at her when she went to his 
side, and the meek little bird just clung to the shelf. 
The next day I made a shelf for her just below his. 

At dusk the cardinals returned, silently, even 
stealthily, as though they thought it unwise to pub- 
lish their presence. Again he was a little ahead of 
her, and he flew to the new shelf. She alighted on 
the edge of the upper one. After a while she tripped 
a little farther in, to a more comfortable place. When 
she was settled, he went to her shelf and snuggled 
down beside her. Maybe he was sorry that he had 



104 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

acted so selfishly the day before. I never saw him 
peek at her again. 

Every stormy day that winter the cardinals came 
to our porch at evening. They became so confiding 
after a week or so that he usually announced their 
arrival with a few low hissing notes, something like 
"Tset, tset, tset!" Sometimes he would perch on 
the upper shelf, sometimes on the lower. Mrs. 
Cardinal was a peace-loving bird. She always came 
last, and took the empty shelf. Usually he would 
change so as to sit beside her. They were always 
gone in the morning, no matter how early I came out; 
and when they came in the evening it was usually 
dusk. So I never got a picture of my cardinals on 
the shelves. 

Mr. Cardinal finally got so he sometimes came to the 
lunch on the snow; but his favorite feedery was a 
tray in my neighbor's yard, which I kept supplied 
with shelled peanuts and shelled corn. The English 
sparrows could not manage these large kernels, so 
the cardinals had this feedery to themselves. This 
may be the reason why they preferred it to the one 
on the ground. 

But the cardinals must have procured much of 
their food elsewhere, for they came only about once 
in three or four hours to get a dainty at the tray. 
Strange to say they never came together. Always 
he came first and ate a while, then sometimes she 
would come, too. It seemed as if she let him come 



THE CARDINALS 



105 




THE cardinal's FAVORITE FEEDERY 

first, then, seeing that he stayed, she took it for 
granted that all was well. 

In March the cardinals stopped sleeping on the 
porch. About that time I began to hear almost 
daily a new song. It sounded like. 



r gilly gilly gilly gilly!" 



106 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

Immediately after it there would be a loose twitter: 
' ' Chuk - ehuk - cliuk - chuk, ' ' — so soft and low, it 
seemed it must be very near. Usually it brought 
another song from the cardinal, and presently he 
would appear with a morsel for Mrs. Cardinal, who 
had a favorite perch in our little pear tree. I soon 
learned that the twitter was her response to his call. 
The winsome sight of seeing him feed her repaid me 
for all the money I spent for peanuts at thirteen 
cents the pound. 

The pair began now to frequent the ravine more 
than usual. On its edge lay a log from which the 
outer bark had been removed. Here the cardinals 
were often to be seen, peeling and tearing off strips 
of wood-fiber, which they bore away in long flowing 
streamers. 

One morning Mrs. Cotton came in. ''Here is news 
for you," she said. ''The red bird and a greenish 
bird are making a nest in my syringa bush." 

The birds went on with their nesting for several 
days. Then Mrs. Cotton came over again, looking 
sad. The birds were carrying away all their nesting 
material, she said. They had probably seen the cat, 
had become alarmed for the safety of their home, and 
so changed its location. 

The cardinal had several songs. One was: 

d d ^ whoit whoit whoit" 

e e 

"Whit whit r r 



THE CARDINALS 107 

Another was just plain: t t'' 

i i 

o o 

h h 

'*W w sung from 

three to ten times in succession. Sometimes, when 
Mrs. Cardinal did not respond promptly, he ''chuk"-ed, 
himself, in imitation of her notes. 

In late August I found the cardinals' deserted nest 
in an evergreen on the ravine's edge. It was made 
almost entirely of this stringy wood-fiber, lined with 
fine rootlets, and interwoven with many leaves. 

I never saw but two baby cardinals of this brood. 
They were brownish birds, and they had the red bill 
of the parents. 

After August I saw nothing more of their mother. 
I have suspected that a boy down the street was to 
blame; his favorite plaything was an air-gun, and 
he had been caught shooting a brown thrasher shortly 
before. It seems to me the laws protecting song- 
birds ought to be taught in every school, and that 
children should be obliged to know that shooting 
song-birds or their young, or spoiling or stealing their 
eggs or nest, is a crime punishable by fine or im- 
prisonment, or both. 

Father Cardinal was seen tending the young 
faithfully until October. Then he suddenly turned 
on them. Whenever they followed him after that he 
drove them from him. The young found peanuts 



108 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

which I had chopped and scattered on the ground for 
them. But whenever Father found the young birds 
eating these nuts, he chased them away. Once a 
baby cardinal found a whole peanut. He bravely 
ventured to eat it, and in the attempt got the shell 
partly open. He was just picking a nut out, when 
his brother tried to snatch it from him. A struggle 
followed, during which the shell broke in two, and 
each contestant got a kernel. In November the 
young cardinals disappeared. 

Father Cardinal's persecution of his motherless 
children seemed unnatural, not to say cruel. Can it 
be that he tried thus to compel his young to seek 
their natural food, rather than to subsist on dainties 
furnished.^ Did he want to encourage them to be- 
come self-reliant and useful.^ Only on this theory 
can I account for his conduct. 

Our cardinal was a widower for some weeks 
longer. Only a few times during that mild winter 
did he come to sleep on our porch, and on those 
occasions he came alone. Then a lady cardinal ap- 
peared, and she followed him persistently. But he 
wholly ignored her. Finally she began to carry food 
to him and to feed him. Whether this be a last re- 
sort of wooing in birddom, or not, I do not know. 
Anyhow, Mr. Cardinal relented. The next thing, he 
was seen to feed her whom he had treated so coolly. 
This was a pretty sure sign that the two had come 
to an understanding. Again the old log by the 



THE CARDINALS 



109 



ravine was being visited for nesting material. Again 
all his songs rang out, and he added a new one. It 
seemed as if he were singing over and over: 

here here here here here" 

^'^Come come Come 



m 




;g|^! il 


if iiiiiiS:" 



ALWAYS MR. CARDINAL CAME FIRST AND ATE 

A while; then she would follow 




SONG SPARROW 



XII 
MY BIRD FAMILY 

A GREAT big family — that's what my bird neigh- 
bors are to me. This large family is made up of 
smaller families. Let me set them all down in a row: 
There are the bluebirds, meadowlarks, killdeers, song 
sparrows, robins, purple martins, goldfinches, wrens, 
orioles, thrashers, thrushes, waxwings, flycatchers, 
pewee, phoebe, and the redheaded woodpecker. Oh, 
there is one more. I would by no means slight the 
humble chimney swift. When I hear that "Gitse 
gitse" twitter, then I know that they, too, have come. 
From early March when the first bluebird arrives, 
until late May when pewee comes, I am like a mother 
who waits at evening, unsatisfied until all her chil- 
dren are in for the night. When I hear the call of 
the latest comer, the sweet-voiced pewee, then I 
know that my absent ones have all returned. 

Add to these the Bob Whites, the cardinals, blue- 
no 



MY BIRD FAMILY 111 

jaj^s, and flickers, who stay the year round, and the 
chickadees, nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, 
and j uncos, who come in autumn to spend the winter, 
and you have my bird family, a wonderful family, 
of musicians, of workmen, of homemakers — fathers 
and mothers and children. 

To me the ways of birds are more entertaining than 
the best play I have ever attended. They enact real 
life, not make-believes. Then, too, what music can 
be compared to the sunrise and sunset concerts of 
birds in springtime and in early summer.^ To know 
each singer by name adds much to the enjoyment. 

The ways of birds are also wonderful, past finding 
out. Who can explain how they make their nests 
so pretty, when the only tools they have are beak 
and feet.^ Then, how gingerly they hide their nests, 
some with dainty curtains of leaves, others by blend- 
ing colors! To find a bird's nest always fills me with 
reverence. It is a little home, a sacred place to its 
owners. It shall be sacred to me. The mother-wit 
and father-wisdom that birds show in rearing their 
young and in protecting them from harm makes me 
believe that they do think and plan and reason out 
things much as we human beings do. The most 
wonderful thing about birds is the long journey that 
so many of them make every year, generally with 
several babies only a few months old in the family. 

It has been proved that birds will return year after 
year to the same orchard, garden, yard, or porch. I 



112 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

know my birds by their actions. I do not need to tie 
bands on their legs to know them. When they return 
they visit all their familiar haunts, not cautiously as 
a stranger would, but boldly, and with the joyousness 
of those who have returned home after a long absence. 
They call to me as if they would say: "Here we 
are again! Are you still here, too.^" 

Then what curiosity they display when they find 
a new bath! How they fly over and around it, try- 
ing to satisfy themselves that it is a safe place to 
alight! What joy they express by their splashing! 

It was while taking her bath that Mother Oriole 
was caught one day by the camera. Most wonderful 
to tell, her own babies whom she often brought with 
her took this picture. How did they do it.^ They 
tried to perch on the thread leading from the camera 
over to the house, where I sat waiting for Mrs. 
Oriole to come out of the water before taking her 
picture. The thread was not strong enough to hold 
the young birds. They went down with it, and in so 
doing snapped the spring which operated the shutter. 
This took the picture of Mother Oriole in the bath. 

Those of my bird family who inhabit houses are 
sure every spring to find either some new houses, or 
their old ones cleaned and repaired. 

I always keep two houses up for bluebirds, and 
several for wrens. It is pleasant to watch them make 
their choice, and after a fledging they can set up 
housekeeping again in the same house, or take 



MY BIRD FAMILY 



113 




MOTHER ORIOLE IN THE BATH 



another. My experience has been that birds become 
attached to a house where they have safely fledged 
a brood, and if it is promptly cleaned they will re- 
turn to it, rather than try a new one. But I have 
known instances where a pair began a second nest- 
ing before the young of their first brood were fledged. 
In such a case an extra house is convenient. 

My bluebird house is five by seven inches,^ and is 
so shaped as to afford depth. Sufficient height is 

^ These dimensions have been accepted and approved not only by 
my own bluebird neighbors, but by a bluebird pair reported in Bird 
Lore for July- August, 1916, as having nested in a cemetery, in an earthen 
jar that lay upon its side on a grave. The report goes: "The jar 
measured five inches across the bottom and about seven inches in 
length." There it is: five by seven! 



114 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

secured by means of a gable roof; and a half -inch 
hole immediately under the roof affords ventilation. 

The bluebird covers the floor of her house with 
grasses to the depth of about an inch and a half. 
Away back against the rear wall she makes the little 
hollow in which she lays her eggs. I make her en- 
trance one inch and a half in diameter, and just 
below the middle front. While brooding she can 
look outside, and this affords her some diversion 
during that monotonous task. This certainly seemed 
to be what one bluebird aimed at who nested in 
Mrs. Daily's wren house. The wad of grasses in 
that house reached clear up to the entrance, which 
was about four inches above the floor. Apparently 
this bird had tried to build her nest high enough so 
she could look outside. 

Wrens always make a litter several inches high of 
twigs and other materials. In this litter they embed 
their nest of fine grasses and feathers. Hence I con- 
clude that they want their entrance several inches 
above the floor, so that, on going in, they can walk 
over the litter and do not have to grope through it. 
Being small birds they need only a small house. 
After years of experimenting I have settled on flve 
inches by seven for wrens also, but their house is so 
shaped as to afford height. The sides run up at the 
back to twelve inches. A half -inch hole high on 
each side affords ventilation. I make the entrance 
one inch and an eighth in diameter, just too small 



MY BIRD FAMILY 115 

for the English sparrow, but large enough to serve 
some other small bird should no wrens come. A 
smaller entrance makes it difficult for wrens to get 
in their bulky nesting materials. My wrens raised 
three broods in their little house in the pear tree last 
summer. 

A friend of mine bought a wren house which has 
a low entrance. Some wrens nested in it. One day 
Father Wren was very much excited, but no one could 
understand what was the trouble. The next day, 
believing that the wrens had fledged their young, my 
friend ordered the house to be cleaned. To her 
horror she found Mother Wren wedged in among the 
nesting, dead. The babies were dead in their nest. 
Evidently their increasing weight had settled the 
nesting materials so the mother could not get out any 
more and neither could Father Wren go in. Let this 
be a warning to all who make wren houses, to make 
the entrance several inches above the floor! 

My houses for wrens and bluebirds are so made 
that they can be easily opened after use, and cleaned. 
The front on the wren house can be raised, that on 
the bluebird house lowered. By means of a screw 
eye, the front is securely closed while the house is in 
use. 

Of late I have also used an open shelter. It con- 
sists of a tray about five inches square, roofed over, 
and serves two purposes. For winter use I fasten a 
small wire pocket on it, into which I put beef suet. 



116 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 




SO MADE THAT THEY CAN BE EASILY OPENED AFTER USE 
AND CLEANED 



Then I mount this shelter about five feet high on a 
tree. Around the trunk I fasten strings of peanuts; 
in the tray I keep shelled corn, of which cardinals 
are especially fond. The English sparrow does not 
care for the suet, and as he cannot manage the corn 
nor the peanuts, this feedery attracts only desirable 



MY BIRD FAMILY 117 

birds. In March I remove the wire pocket, and 
mount the shelter a few feet higher, to serve as a 
nest shelter for robins. The roof will ward off heavy 
rains, which destroy so many robin's nests. A 
similar shelter, if fastened in the shade on a wall, 
might attract phoebes. 

When one starts out to make bird houses he should 
decide first of all what birds he wishes to attract by 
means of them. Booklets containing drawings and 
instructions for making houses for many kinds of 
house-nesting birds can be had free by addressing a 
postcard to the Biological Survey, Washington, D.C. 

Whoever tries to attract birds should also protect 
them from storms, from their natural enemies, and 
from meddlesome people. Birds will sometimes re- 
ject a good house because it is not properly mounted, 
or because the location is objectionable. The boy 
and I visited a park lately where about a hundred 
bird houses had been put up, and but a few were said 
to be occupied. These houses were so constructed 
that, by turning a cleat underneath, the floor could 
be pulled down and out. If occupied, opening them 
in this way might have disturbed the nest. We 
visited twenty -five of these houses. All except two 
were mounted so low that the boy could reach them, 
some with ease, and turn those cleats. Only the two 
which he could not reach were occupied. 

Some people have recommended tin cans as nest 
boxes for small birds. I have tried the tin can, care- 



118 



HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 



fully painted and placed in the shade. But, even with 
these precautions, I would discourage its use. People 
are so apt to forget about placing it in the shade! I 
have seen birds' nests in tin cans with little skeletons 
embedded in them, the birds having been smothered 
by the intense heat which metal will store. 

Enough wooden boxes are discarded by grocers, 
druggists, and other merchants to stock the country 
every year with bird houses. If manual training 
teachers will encourage the making of these discards 

into bird houses, shelters, 
and feederies, it will 
mark a step forward in 
bird protection. 

Food houses should be 
protected so that other 
animals cannot mount 
and monopolize them, 
keeping the birds at bay. 
The red squirrel will do 
this unless the food tray 
is at least five feet above 
ground and the post well 
sheathed in tin. 

My newest food house 
has the lid of a cheese 
box as tray and the top 
FOOD HOUSE, MADE OUT OF of a sugar barrel as roof. 
WASTE MATERIALS This flat surface is a 




MY BIRD FAMILY 119 

handy place for a basin of water. In each of the four 
pillars supporting the roof is a hole, to be stuffed with 
suet, cheese, peanut butter, etc. My grocer saves the 
drippings from his peanut grinder for my birds, so 
there is no extravagance in giving them this dainty. 
Song sparrows and bluebirds like it as well as the 
woodpeckers. On the side of the tray I tack nesting 
material. So this food house, made out of waste 
materials, serves several uses. The boy liked it so 
well he patterned one after it for his birds. 

Every autumn a lisping, whispered, dreamy bird 
song coming from some low elevation has puzzled me. 
The bird looked like the song sparrow, but this soft 
warble was so different from his spirited spring and 
summer songs that I could not believe my eyes. 
After repeated autumn entries in my notebook, ''I see 
his heavy breastspot heave and swell, and his tail 
quiver as the song sparrow's always does when he 
sings," I was gratified to find my findings confirmed by 
another observer.^ The singer was the song sparrow. 

But to return to my bird family. 

From the time the first birds arrive in the spring 
until they leave again, my notebook and my field 
glasses are my constant companions. Now here are 
some little nature secrets. My notebook is a green 
one. I have to buy the paper in large sheets of the 
wholesaler, and make the books myself. A green 

^ Chas. R. Wallace of Delaware, Ohio, in Bird Lore, March- April, 
1915, p. 128. 



120 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 

notebook on my lap does not make such a striking 
patch on the landscape as a white one would. The 
birds do not notice it so readily. Then, whenever I 
am out *'birding," except in winter, I wear green 
clothes. When taking pictures I use green focusing 
cloths instead of the usual black ones. These things 
are great helps in bird study. 

There now! For the first time in this book I have 
used the word ''study" in connection with birds. 
Some people think they must study volumes on or- 
nithology before they can enjoy birds. Nothing 
could be farther from the truth. 

Even the little tot in a family may have an inter- 
est in his bird neighbors that will provide him whole- 
some pastime. I know one who, ever since he could 
walk well, has faithfully kept the birds' bath in the 
yard supplied with fresh water, and who saves all the 
table scraps for them. He wears an Audubon button 
and says he is ''the birdies' policeman." 

Love, look, listen, appreciate; let these be your 
watchwords. Just love the birds. Look, as long as 
they remain in sight. Observe their ways and their 
appearance. Listen to their songs. Try to know 
your immediate bird neighbors by appearance, name, 
and song. Do them a kindness when possible. This 
will lead up to recognition of birds, which creates a 
desire for study of them. The rest will follow. You 
will begin to record observations. You will wish ior 
field glasses and bird books. You will want to spend 



MY BIRD FAMILY 



121 



your holidays and your vacations where you can see 
birds. Before you reaHze it you will be one of those 
happiest of individuals, a nature lover, as all true 
bird lovers are. It cannot be otherwise, because the 
birds will draw you out to nature at all times, and 
make you see her in all her moods. 

Then some day, when everybody loves birds, 
perhaps they will no longer hide their nests, and 
may even fly to us, instead of away from us. 





THE BIRDIES POLICEMAN 



GLOSSARY 

apartment, room, living quarters. 

authority, one who has commanding knowledge of a sub- 
ject. 

berating, scolding. 

Berlepsch, family name of a nobleman who was noted for 

his kindness to birds, 
bewildered, confused. 
birdling, a baby bird. 
blending, mixing. 
bluster, play the bully, 
bungalow, a one-story house. 

chickfeed, a mixture of cracked grain. 

clamber, climb awkwardly. 

commotion, disturbance. 

conjecture, guess, suppose. 

convenient, suitable, handy. 

cornice, the fancy topmost part of a wall, usually over- 
hanging. 

courageous, full of courage, brave. 

craw, the crop; part of a bird's throat through which his 
food passes. 

crouching, lying flat or very close to the ground. 

delving, making holes by digging; working hard, 
demonstration, a show, 
distinguished, notable, unusually fine, 
distressed, troubled. 

123 



124 GLOSSARY 

entice, coax, persuade, 
evidently, plainly, clearly. 

fetch, go and bring back. 

fledge, (a bird) to reach the age when its feathers are grown, 

so that it can fly; to care for a bird until it reaches that 

age. 
fledgling, young bird, just out of the nest, 
forage, seek for food, 
frantic, wild with fear or alarm, or even with joy. 

genial, friendly, kindly, 
gingerly, cautiously, carefully, 
goal, the place one is going to. 
guttural, throaty, hoarse. 

hepatica, a spring flower, also called liverwort. 

inflection, change in the pitch of the voice. 

insanitary, unhealthful. 

inspect, examine, look into. 

intruder, a meddler, outsider, stranger. 

larvae, caterpillars, grubs. 

lore, knowledge. ^ 

mandible, a jaw, upper or lower, especially of a beak or bill, 
manicure stick, a small smooth stick of orange wood, used 

in caring for the finger nails, 
matins, morning songs, 
menace, danger, 
minor tone, low, soft, sad tone, 
minstrel, a traveling musician, 
monopolize, to own, to possess alone, 
monotonous, tiresome, 
morsel, a mouthful, a bit of food. 



GLOSSARY 125 

Neufchatel, a city in Switzerland famed for the manufac- 
ture of cheeses, 
nimble, active, 
notional, full of notions, whimsical, " cranky." 

obedient, willing to obey, dutiful, 
odious, disagreeable, unpopular, offensive, 
opportunity, chance, 
ornithology, the scientific study of birds. 

pastime, amusement, play, 
pergola, garden house. 

persecution, pursuit with the object of punishing or hurt- 
ing, 
pilfering, thieving, 
pleading, begging, 
plumage, feathers. 

preen, smooth down feathers with the beak, 
premises, piece of land belonging to somebody, 
primitive, old-fashioned, 
prospect, view, outlook, scene, 
provisions, food. 

rasping, harsh, grating. 

ravine, small valley made by running water. 

relent, yield, give in, forgive. 

revenge, return of evil for evil. 

revive, bring back to life. 

rippling, moving up and down or back and forth, like water. 

rung, step {of a ladder) . 

sanctuary, refuge, shelter, place of protection. 

serene, quiet, calm. 

sibilant, high, piercing, hissing notes. 



126 GLOSSARY 

soot, a fine black powder left by smoke on the inside of 

chimneys, 
stealthily, secretly, 
subdued, overcome, quieted, 
subsist, live on. 
suet, beef fat. 
syringa bush, an ornamental shrub with very sweet white 

blossoms. 

tapering, narrowing to a point. 

temporary, for a short time. 

tenants, dwellers, occupants. 

tethered, tied, leashed, hitched to a post or weight. 

tinker, work at anything in an unskilled way. 

tin-sheathed, enclosed in tin sheeting. 

tolerate, put up with, endure. 

transfer, remove. 

trellis, lattice work for vines to grow on. 

trilling, quavering (said of singing). 

underbrush, small trees and bushes growing under large 
trees in a wood. 

ventilation, letting in fresh air. 
venture, risk, attempt, 
vespers, evening songs, 
vigilant, watchful, 
vise, clamp. 

winsome, charming, pleasing. 

yodeling, warbling, singing with frequent changes from 
high to low and low to high. 



INDEX 



Bird Calls: Baltimore Oriole, 73. 

Bluebird, 29, 32, 34, 35, 56. 

Bluejay, 52. 

Bob ^Vhite, 99. 

Brown Thrasher, 75. 

Cardinal, 104-107, 109. 

Cedar Waxw^ng, 94. 

Chickadee, 16. 

Chimney S^ift, 59, 64, 6Q, 67, 
110. 

Crested Flycatcher, 96. 

Downy Woodpecker, 12. 

FHcker, 48-50. 

Goldfinch, 56, 76, 77. 

Junco, 99. 

Killdeer, 52. 

Meadowlark, 54. 

Nuthatch, 14. 

Pewee, 98. 

Phoebe, 97, 98. 

Purple Martin, 80, 84, 85, 89. 

Redheaded Woodpecker, 73. 

Song Sparrow, 54, 119. 

Wood Thrush, 50. 

Wren, 4, 8, 38, 41. 
Blackbird, 75. 
Bluebird, 18-20, 24-35, 45, 46, 

54-56, 110, 112-115, 119. 
Bluejay, 17, 52, 99, 100, 110. 
Bob White, 98, 99, 110. 
Boy, The, 18, 19, 38, 44-61, 67, 90, 

92-101, 117. 
Bunny (See Rabbit). 



Canary, Wild (See Goldfinch). 

Cardinal, 102-110. 

Cat, 9, 10, 23-26, 32, 40, 41, 45, 

57, 69, 70, 99, 106. 
Chickadee, 16, 17, 20, 46, 52, 56, 

103, 111. 

Dog, 21, 22, 101. 

Eggs, 8, 38, 47, 55, 60, 82, 107. 

FHcker, 47-50, 111. 

Flycatcher, Crested, 94-96, 110. 

Food for Birds, 2, 3, 5-8, 12-17, 23, 
24, 33, 34, 47, 52, 58, 60, 64- 
67, 73-75, 83, 90, 92, 93, 
99-104, 107, 108, 115-119. 

Foodhouses, 93, 94, 99, 100, 115- 
119. 

Goldfinch, 56, 73, 75-77, 110. 

Hawk, 85, 86, 90. 
Hawk, Marsh, 48. 
Helps in Bird Study, 11, 72, 119, 120. 

Junco, 99, 103, 111. 

Killdeer, 47, 52, 53, 110. 
Kitty (See Cat). 

Martin, Purple, 46, 47, 58, 78-91, 

110. 
Meadowlark, 54, 110. 



127 



128 



INDEX 



Nest and Nestings: Baltimore 
Oriole, 73. 
Bluebird, 30-32, 35, 38, 45, 54- 

Bluejay, 52. 

Brown Thrasher, 74, 75. 

Cardinal, 106, 107, 109. 

Cedar Waxwing, 94, 96, 97. 

Chimney Swift, 59, 61-63. 

Flicker, 48. 

Goldfinch, 56, 75, 76. 

Killdeer, 53, 54. 

Phoebe, 97. 

Purple Martin, 78, 82. 

Redheaded Woodpecker, 73. 

Robin, 3, 8, 9, 68, 69. 

Wood Thrush, 50, 51. 

Wren, 3-5, 8, 36-43, 45. 
Nesthouses, 17-20, 24-26, 29-31, 
111-115, 117, 118. 

Berlepsch house, 94-96. 

Bluebird, 18, 19, 25-27, 29-32, 
35, 46, 112-115. 

Chickadee, 46. 

Crested Flycatcher, 94-96. 

Purple Martin, 46, 78-91. 

Woodpecker, 46. 

Wren, 3-5, 18-20, 26, 29, 36-43, 
45, 46, 112, 114, 115. 
Nest Shelter, 117. 
Nuthatch, 14-16, 103, 111. 

Oriole, 58, 72, 73, 110, 112. 

Pewee, 98, 99, 110. 
Phoebe, 97, 98, 110, 117. 



Pigeon, 2. 

Protection, 10, 15, 23-27, 30, 32, 
38, 45, 48, 56, 69-71, 117. 

Rabbit, 21-23, 101. 
Robin, 2, 3, 8-11, 47, 5S, 68-71, 
110, 117. 

Sparrow, English, 2, 25-27, 32, 
35, 37, 38, 40, 45, 54, 56, 
79-82, 84, 86, 88, 115, 116. 

Sparrow, Song, 54, 92, 93, 110, 119. 

Squirrel, Gray, 25. 

Squirrel, Red, 15, 24-27, 45, 69, 118. 

Swallow {See Swift and Purple 
Martin). 

Swift, Chimney, 59-67, 110. 

Thrasher, Brown, 58, 73-75, 110. 
Thrush, Wood, 47, 50, 51, 110. 

Waxwing, Cedar, 94, 96, 97, 110. 
Woodpecker, 2, 11-14, 17, 20, 46, 

52, 119. 
Woodpecker, Downy, 11-14, 23, 

111. 
Woodpecker, Goldenwinged {See 

Flicker) . 
Woodpecker, Hairy, 12, 111. 
Woodpecker, Redheaded, 58, 73, 74, 

110. 
Wren, 3-8, 11, 18-20, 24, 26, 29, 33, 

36-43, 45, 110, 112, 114, 

115. 



